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UNPRECEDENTED levels of activity in the fixed rate dollar market continued with over $11bn raised in the first four days of this week -- including the largest ever dollar Eurobonds from the World Bank and its sister organisation, the IFC. The supranationals launched benchmark transactions on Tuesday, adding to the $4bn issued by US agency Fannie Mae in the global market the day before. Total fixed rate dollar issuance this year stands at over $39bn, some $13bn more than in the first five weeks of 1997.

* Banesto

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INVESTORS starved of Polish sovereign risk devoured $600m and Ffr1.25bn of synthetic government bonds this week as France's export credit agency securitised Polish Paris Club debt. The Polish state incurred obligations to the Compagnie Française d'Assurance pour le Commerce Extérieur (Coface) when it defaulted on payments for exports from French companies in the early 1990s.

* Floating rate dollar investors this week eagerly greeted one of the first FASIT securitisations, as Nomura Asset Capital Corp launched $2.05bn of Euro/144A notes through Nomura and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. Nomura Depositor Trust Series 1998 ST-1 sold $1.209bn of triple-A rated senior notes with a 2.9 year average life and four classes of bonds with 4.96 year average lives rated double-A, single-A, triple-B and triple-B minus.

SBC WARBURG Dillon Read has launched a £250.33m securitisation of shared appreciation mortgages, its second packaging of the asset class, but the first to attempt to tap into US demand. Unlike the first deal, launched in July 1997, this transaction contains a 144A provision under which, according to SBC Warburg analyst Pratik Shah, some 30% of the deal is likely to be sold. That extra pool of demand may be needed: the Bank of Scotland has already announced that it will issue up to a total of £1bn of similar bonds this year, with the underlying product accounting for around a third of the bank's new mortgage product this year.

The consistent pricing of derivative products involving the joint realizations of a collection of forward rates requires the specification of the covariance matrix between the various underlying rates.

Australia's domestic bond market is enjoying rapid growth. The build-up of investible funds at a time of a declining government borrowing requirement is creating a need for new forms of fixed income assets.

It is not just European borrowers which have accessed the euro market. Latin American sovereigns, which in recent years have come to rely on European investors - in particular retail - in currencies such as the Deutschmark and lire, are trying to ensure that these crucial investors are familiar with their product in euro at the earliest possible stage.

From the outset, L-Bank has been at the forefront of euro-related issuance. Two years ago, it began issuing benchmarks in the currencies which will make up the future euro.

Can supply generate demand? The leading issuers and investment banks in the debt capital markets certainly hope so, as they seek to establish a foothold in Europe's future single currency market.

MOODY'S REVISED the outlook on its ratings for six of China's major international trust and investment corporations (ITICs) from stable to negative at the beginning of the week. The agency said: "Daunting difficulties in restructuring the country's loss-making state owned enterprises and the increasingly severe unemployment are straining the financial resources of China's central and local governments and this weakens their ability to support the ITICs that they control."