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DAVID Bonsall has taken a team of 20 asset backed professionals to set up an international securitisation group at CIBC Wood Gundy. Until the recent merger with SBC Warburg, Bonsall was the global head of securitisation at UBS, in terms of volume and diversity of transactions a market leader in international asset securitisation. The 20 strong team are all former members of that team, and some key staffers will replay their UBS roles at CIBC Wood Gundy. Mark Lewis will lead the marketing and deal execution effort in Europe, while Fazel Ahmed fills that role in Asia.

THREE collateralised loan obligations, worth a total of $2.8bn, have been launched since last Friday. All came in floating rate dollars, but the similarities ended there. The largest, at $1.3bn, was Indosuez Capital Funding IV. CIBC Oppenheimer lead managed the deal for Indosuez Capital, a US subsidiary of Crédit Agricole Indosuez.

AT LEAST eight London-based securitisation officials have resigned from Deutsche Bank, most of them dissatisfied with new roles they were assigned after a reorganisation. Among the departing staff is Robin Saunders, who had headed the London asset backed group.

GREENWICH NatWest is to securitise a completely new asset class -- VAT receivables. A $100m CP facility has been arranged for Meridian VAT Reclaim, a Dublin based company which reclaims VAT from EU tax authorities for clients around the world. "Meridian is by far the largest VAT recovery organisation in the world," said Stuart Lammin, associate director in NatWest's London asset securitisation group. "Most of the claims arise from business travel. The amounts are very small, so there is a huge quantity of data to process -- Meridian's systems are extremely impressive."

* Merrill Lynch will next week launch Contimortgage Home Equity Loan Trust 1998-2, a $1.75bn deal with fixed and floating rate tranches. * Deutsche Bank is believed to be preparing a £115m residential mortgage securitisation for Kensington Mortgage Co -- the deal may launch as early as next week.

Securitisation practitioners in Europe have high hopes for the coming of the euro. More investors will turn to asset backed securities in a search for yield, bankers believe, and governments, banks and corporates will have stronger incentives to securitise their assets.

"I like Spain," wrote Barton Biggs in March. And how. Seldom can Morgan Stanley Dean Witter's idiosyncratic strategist have written in such glowing and hyperbolic terms about an economy.

Investment bankers at most of the leading international houses - bar one - would scarcely be human if they did not allow themselves a private, self-indulgent smile at the setback suffered by Merrill Lynch over the recent Tabacalera privatisation.

Asian issuers have so far been infrequent borrowers in the Eurobond markets - whether in dollars, yen or any of the European currencies. And this trend seems unlikely to change over the near term while the region grapples with its devastating financial crisis.

In the run-up to the single currency in Europe, more and more cities and regions in Europe are starting to look at the international capital markets as a potential source of funding.

WHEN ABN AMRO LAUNCHED ITS FIRST mortgage backed security in September 1997, it struck into new territory. The Dfl 2bn transaction, labelled European Mortgage Securities I, virtually doubled the outstanding guilder asset backed market, and created a benchmark for future securitisations in the currency.

Euroweek asked five leading investors to outline how they are reacting to the challenges and opportunities that the euro presents.