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* French bank Natexis Banques Populaires may launch its first collateralised debt obligation today (Friday). Structured by Lehman Brothers, the leveraged, synthetic deal transfers the credit risk on $412.5m of investment grade US and international corporate bonds on Natexis' balance sheet. Natix plc will issue two classes of public bonds - Eu25.8m of senior notes rated Aaa by Moody's with a 7.17 year average life and Eu17.9m of paper rated Baa3 with an average life of 7.48 years. The notes are amortising three month Euribor floaters with a legal maturity in 2008. Natexis will retain the Eu4.43m first loss piece and execute a super-senior credit default swap.

RFC Mortgage Services Ltd, the UK non-conforming lender owned by General Motors Acceptance Corp, this week launched its fourth securitisation through Barclays Capital. The £195m deal, RMAC 2000 - NS2 plc, tapped strong investor demand thanks to a shortage of prime sterling MBS, helping it to price at tighter spreads than non-conforming issuers have enjoyed for the last year.

UNITED Bank of Switzerland this week executed the first collateralised loan obligation in Switzerland, transferring the credit risk on Sfr2.5bn of its loans to small and medium sized Swiss companies using a synthetic, leveraged structure. Swiss Bank Corp opened the public Swiss securitisation market in 1998 with a securitisation of its residential mortgages, and indicated at the time that it would become a regular MBS issuer - but no more deals emerged.

If investors are to be believed, the growth in the volume of credit research distributed by investment banks has outpaced even the growth of the corporate bond market.

With France's obligations foncières now competing for investors' attention, the German Pfandbrief market is coming under closer scrutiny than ever before. Comparisons with the French product are highlighting structural elements of the Pfandbrief market that were previously unquestioned.

As the European Commission's investigation into state support enjoyed by the Landesbanks progresses, and the likelihood of fundamental change to the German banking landscape increases, analysts are focusing on what the future holds for the sector.

Even before the 11 founder members of Emu had officially fixed their currencies against the euro, their neighbours in central and eastern Europe were readying offensives to join the EU elite.

With their increasing appetite for debt, telecoms companies are working hard to keep investors happy. To keep markets open, they have offered credit sensitive coupons and forward-looking pricing.

Rarely is the credit quality of a triple-A borrower such as the European Investment Bank or Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau questioned. Where, then, can value be found at the very top of the credit spectrum?

If value at risk forecasts based on an internal market risk model, such as M, are used in practice, it is of crucial importance to know whether M's forecast quality is sufficiently high to be relied on.

IBM tapped the Samurai bond market this week, offering ¥140bn of two year bonds. The transaction marked the largest ever deal for a corporate in the Samurai market and helped propel the week's issuance to levels almost surpassing 1998's entire Samurai issuance. The bond was lead managed by Daiwa SBCM and Merrill Lynch. The deal was issued at par, and carries a semi-annual coupon of 0.62%. It was priced at 5bp over yen Libor. IBM is rated A1/A+ by Moody's and Standard & Poor's respectively.

THE Department of Finance of the Republic of the Philippines and Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco) plan to raise yen denominated bonds, as global market volatility continues to leave the euro and dollar bond markets unappealing for issuers. The potential borrowers said the relative stability of the yen market had heavily influenced their decision to finance through yen.