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SPECULATION that Chase Manhattan's £1.5bn five year revolving credit for Royal & Sun Alliance was failing to attract enough banks at the co-arranging level was rife this week. However, the deal's supporters also rallied round and struck out against the deal's detractors. When the deal was made public, many bankers were taken aback by the margin -- a punchy 22.5bp over Libor. Many saw it as too skinny and unsympathetic to market conditions. Others confidently predicted that the deal would crash as a result of lack of market appetite.

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THE RUSSIAN loan market, after collapsing last week, was pronounced dead this week by the international syndicated loan market. In the short term, there can be no return for Russian borrowers, be they banks, corporates or local authorities -- despite losses on loans expected to be minimal compared to losses on trading and hedging contracts. Even trade and pre-export financings -- usually the two techniques impervious to market conditions -- have been dropped by lenders. While Russia remains the main talking point among loan market players many bankers are beginning to focus on the impact that the crisis is having on the rest of central and eastern Europe.

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POLITICAL upheaval overshadowed the economic turmoil in Russia this week after the Russian parliament rejected Viktor Chernomyrdin's candidacy for prime minister in the first round of voting on Monday. A second vote will be held today (Friday), with most observers convinced that president Yeltsin's candidate will again be rejected by the left-dominated lower house.

LONDON bankers will shortly pitch to lead managers Robert Fleming and Dresdner Kleinwort Benson for syndicate slots in the demutualisation of the South African life assurance group, SanLam. Earlier this year the company announced its intention to float on the Johannesburg stockmarket and, until recent turbulence in world equity markets, the deal was expected to play well to an audience including international buyers. Despite the tough market conditions the group still plans to list locally and to complete its demutualisation before the end of the year.

Denmark ABN Amro, Citibank and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi have launched the co-arranging phase of the $500m credit facility for Borealis, the Danish petrochemicals company.

Market commentary Compiled by Tawanda Nyandoro, RBC DS Global Markets, London. Tel: +44 171-653 4870

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Eurosterling secondary market Compiled by HSBC Markets, London. Tel: +44 171-336 3525.

LEAD managers JP Morgan and Warburg Dillon Read this week began premarketing the IPO for Swisscom as the government confirmed that it is unlikely to consider cancelling or postponing the deal in the face of difficult market conditions. With pre-marketing continuing next week, an indicated price range is due to be released on September 15. At up to $10bn, the deal will be the largest European IPO this year.

* Commerzbank Global Equities has appointed Brian O'Keefe and Charlie Dove-Edwin to form a new pan-European engineering research team. They will be joined by Winfried Becker who is based in Frankfurt and has been with Commerzbank for two years. Brian O'Keefe joins CGE from JP Morgan Investment Management. Charles Dove-Edwin joins from Lehman Brothers.