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A WEEK after the market was wondering whether the £550m facility for Yorkshire Power was struggling to get off the ground, the arrangers have triumphantly reported that all is well and that a solid group of co-arrangers and senior lead managers have joined the deal. There were strong market mutterings that the pricing -- which ranges between 25bp and 32.5bp over the facility's four tranches -- was too tight and that the deal needed a few more basis points to see it through.

US CREDIT card issuer Capital One made its sterling debut this week, via a transaction that was Barclays Capital's fourth US credit card securitisation of 1998. The transaction was actually two £250m issues -- Capital One Master Trust's Series 1998-2, a one year bond, and Series 1998-3, with an expected maturity of three years.

PARIBAS launched the second asset backed bond in euros this week, and introduced a new asset class in Italian securitisation -- consumer loans. The Eu311m transaction parcelled loans for Findomestic SpA, the second largest Italian consumer credit provider after Fiatsava, the captive finance company of Fiat.

FIRST USA launched its fourth US credit card securitisation of 1998 this week, in a $842.25m deal sole managed by Salomon Smith Barney. The lead introduced a new application for the technique it has pioneered to allow the most subordinated part of a credit card transaction to be sold as a registered bond. Salomon primarily designed that security to allow US pension funds and other fund managers which follow ERISA investment criteria to buy the subordinated interest, and the first trials of the structure were sold fixed rate to meet their needs.

* The first term securitisation from Portugal may emerge as early as next week. Deutsche Bank is roadshowing a DM450m package of unsecured consumer loans for Banco Comercial Português. With a seven year final maturity, the deal will include a double-A rated senior tranche with a three year average life and a mezzanine, likely rated single-A, with a five year average life.

"Worst of" default swaps are default swaps on a basket of issuers in which only the first default is covered.

In recent years, value-at-risk has been considered one of the best measures of risk by banks and other financial institutions.

CITICORP'S long held mandate for Taiwan's CMC Magnetics was completed last Friday in a private placement raising $31m. Having originally issued a mandate last autumn for a $50m convertible, the company settled for a scaled down transaction completed in extremely difficult market conditions. Terms for the five year deal comprised an annual coupon of 0.5% on an issue price of par and three year put at 123.23% to yield 200bp over Treasuries. With a conversion price of NT$70 reflecting a 9.375% premium to last Friday's NT$64 close, the deal is also callable after one year at the accreted put subject to the 140% hurdle.

KOREA ELECTRIC Power Corporation (Kepco) failed to launch a novel zero coupon bond this week. Although the deal is still being marketed to potential investors, Kepco's failure to unearth sufficient demand provided a potent new symbol of the height of the hurdles faced by Asian credits in the international debt markets.

KOREA Telecom is set to achieve its long-awaited listing on the Korean Stock Exchange this month as the government prepares to sell up to the one third of its most prized privatisation asset. Lehman was recently appointed as financial adviser for the sale of a 10% strategic stake, while Morgan Stanley Dean Witter still holds the mandate for the company's prospective ADR issue. Bankers said, however, that while the government is keen to speed up its privatisation programme, it would be suicidal to attempt a simultaneous offering process whereby the local listing and ADR take place together.

ROADSHOWS FOR the Kingdom of Thailand's global bond offering are being scheduled for the week beginning Monday July 13, in a bid to complete the long awaited transaction before the end of the month. The $1bn deal's much touted lead managers Goldman Sachs and Warburg Dillon Read continue to assert that they have not been awarded a mandate.

THE MALAYSIAN government is continuing to push swiftly ahead with its prospective $2bn global bond offering for the Asset Management Corporation (AMC), maintaining a tight launch schedule which should see the offering priced by early August at the very latest. Documentation for the JP Morgan and UBS led issue is being finalised, although both the government and leads have acknowledged that timing depended upon Thailand's final decision on its own transaction.