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Italy's largest life assurance company, Alleanza Assicurazioni, launched what is believed to be the first securitisation of life policy loans last Friday (December 10), in a Eu278.3m transaction via Salomon Smith Barney. Like most Italian life assurers, Alleanza extends loans to holders of its life policies who would otherwise have to seek a consumer loan from a bank. The loans have the unique characteristic that the borrowers cannot default.

The controversy over the German government's plan to privatise the housing estate of the national railway company Deutsche Bahn blew up into a full scale national scandal this week. The Green Party has discovered that the owners of the largest member of the German consortium bidding for the 112,000 homes donated DM6m to the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) in September 1998, just three months after the CDU government decided to sell the properties to the consortium.

* Banca Nazionale del Lavoro is on the verge of awarding a mandate to buy or securitise non-performing loans, mostly mortgages, with a face value of Lit2.8tr (Eu1.45bn). JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Paribas are in contention. JP Morgan is offering to buy the assets outright, and Morgan Stanley's track record suggests that it would do the same, while Paribas proposes to pay a reduced purchase price ahead of securitisation and let the seller keep the equity. The deal is likely to emerge in the first half of next year.

UK PROPERTY company NHP Plc, which provides finance for operators of nursing homes for the elderly through sale and leaseback transactions, responded this week to criticisms of the property valuation it used for its most recent securitisation, Care Homes No 3 Ltd. Peter Champness, a director of healthcare consultancy LCS International Consulting Ltd, wrote to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors last week, alleging that the valuation performed by DTZ Debenham Thorpe was in breach of RICS guidelines and could have "materially misled the potential purchasers of the bonds." The RICS is reported to be considering whether to refer the complaint to a panel on professional conduct.

ABN Amro launched the first securitisation of Dutch consumer loans last Friday (December 10), in a further sign that the bank is emerging as one of Europe's most ardent securitisers. The Eu1.376bn issue is also the largest securitisation of the asset class in Europe. "The deal went fine, despite the late timing," said a syndicate official at ABN Amro in London. "The pricing was a little bit difficult, because the market is thinner at this time of year. We postponed launch by a day to make sure the bonds were fully preplaced. Due diligence is harder to do when firms are 60%-70% staffed."

In last week's issue of DW we looked at the treatment of credit risk in the recently released consultation paper by the European Commission on new capital adequacy rules for European Union financial institutions, and compared it to similar proposals by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision.

Latvia Transit Bank is thought to be looking for a $20m syndicated loan to be launched next year and may be turning to Bankgesellschaft Berlin to arrange it.

Australia Merrill Lynch completed a A$48m placement of Powertel shares on Tuesday. A total of 20m shares in the third-tier telecom provider were sold by a venture capital company at A$2.40 - a discount of around 10% to the market price.

ABN Amro Rothschild's $300m Hong Kong IPO for Beijing Capital International Airport will be among the first deals of the new year, heading a new stream of transport related sales to target investors. A research blackout for the $250m to $300m deal for the Chinese capital's redeveloped airport begins on December 23, prompting expectations of an early January launch.

* The Philippine National Power Corporation (Napocor) has sent out invitations to bid on a dollar bond offering for the second time this year. Having previously sought proposals in June, the state-owned group has asked banks to update pricing guidelines for a minimum $300m 10 year transaction for launch next year. Replies are due by December 20, but many bankers doubt whether a transaction is any more likely to see the light of day than it was in the summer when the group said it was considering a third quarter deal.

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan has achieved a far higher level of acceptances than originally anticipated for the exchange offer of its three Eurobonds which closed this Monday (December 6). However, while the country managed to get 90% of bondholders to agree to the terms of the exchange, observers said that the key question centres on what will happen to the remaining 10% that did not participate.