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You also heard the news just after midday on Wednesday - the Deutsche-Dresdner merger had been unceremoniously binned, taken to an unmarked outside dunny and flushed down the River Oder. "Good riddance" is our opinion because, as we have said in these columns before, this was a merger which should never have been allowed to happen. Rarely in more than 30 years have we seen two world ranking banks behave with such gross incompetence and total disregard for the interests of their shareholders and employees. The leaders of both banks destroyed shareholder value and the reputation of German banking for professionalism.

HSBC Bank Plc, the former Midland Bank, this week launched the first public securitisation to emerge from the giant HSBC Group, with a £519m collateralised loan obligation backed by its loans to UK corporates. The deal removes one of the most high profile names from the dwindling list of top commercial banks yet to adopt securitisation as a tool of balance sheet management. It also underlines the fact that changes in retail savings patterns are sharpening banks' enthusiasm for new sources of funds.

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter last Friday emerged victorious from an eight month battle against a consortium of Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan to acquire the troubled Italian mortgage bank Credito Fondiario e Industriale SpA (Fonspa). The price Morgan Stanley will pay has not been disclosed, but the deal takes the US bank's commitment to the Italian non-performing loan and real estate markets to a new height.

Salomon Smith Barney has begun marketing a £750m mortgage securitisation for Bank of Scotland that will use a highly innovative structure incorporating US style master trust technology in a bid to achieve greater efficiency and tighter pricing. Mound Financing No 1 Plc will offer four senior tranches rated triple-A by Moody's and Standard & Poor's. The first three will be denominated in dollars, and will be soft bullets on the model of US credit card securities.

The idea that it is possible to purchase a foreign exchange option without paying a premium is so attractive that skepticism would be justified.

The US Treasury's planned buy-back of debt early this year promised to enhance the role of agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as alternative benchmarks. But only weeks later, questions over the two agencies' government links emerged, testing the borrowers' funding strategies to the limit. Nevertheless Linda Knight, senior vice president and treasurer at Fannie Mae, and Jerome Lienhard, senior vice president, investment funding, at Freddie Mac, remain confident that the two will enjoy a bright future. Interviewed by Jo Richards.

Formed by the combination of the Japan Development Bank and Hokkaido-Tohoku Development Finance Public Corporation, the Development Bank of Japan is set to become a familiar borrower on the domestic and international markets. Euroweek recently met with Yoichiro Yokoyama, director of the treasury team at the DBJ, to discuss the borrower's plans. Interviewed by Mark B Johnson.

Competition for funds spurred by the introduction of the euro last year has prompted European agencies to approach investors more carefully than ever before. Intensive marketing, thorough explanations of government support, and large liquid benchmarks have all been employed in the drive for surrogate status. And when the euro market has proved tough, agencies have moved to position themselves in currencies such as dollars and yen. Interviewed by Neil Day.

THE DBS Group, the largest bank in Southeast Asia and one of the region's premier credits, has mandated Morgan Stanley Dean Witter for a $500m 10 year subordinated debt issue. It will follow DBS's outstanding $750m subordinated notes due 2009, which have been upgraded by Moody's from A1 to Aa3 (S&P rate the bonds at A-).

TWO OF China's most popular internet portals, Sina.com and Netease.com, are on track to list on Nasdaq in April. The issues should enjoy strong demand from investors who have witnessed the stellar performance of issues such as China.com and more recently Tom.com. China.com is far less developed than either Sina or Netease in terms of average daily views and registered users. Tom.com is still little more than a business plan.

The Korea Development Bank completed its debut Eu500m five year bond issue yesterday (Thursday) - forcing European investors to prove their confidence in the recovery of the Korean economy and in the process forging an important benchmark for itself and Korea. Lead managed by Barclays Capital and Deutsche Bank, the offering carries an annual coupon of 6%, an issue price of 99.513% to yield 120bp over the Bobl 134 government bond.