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* THE PROVINCE of Buenos Aires last Friday (March 24) issued a Eu50m tap of its outstanding Eu300m 10.75% March 2005 euro bond via Credit Suisse First Boston and Dresdner Kleinwort Benson. Originally launched for Eu250m on February 17 at a yield of 10.81% and a margin of 565bp over the 4.25% February 2005 Bobl on the basis of a 99.75 fixed re-offer price, the issue was increased by Eu50m on February 21 on the same terms.

Recently barely a day has passed without the swap market hitting a new historic high and this week proved no exception. After renewed worries about the credit-worthiness of the agency sector were digested by US capital markets, the 10 year swap closed at 125bp over Treasuries on Wednesday - yet another 10 year record end-of-day price. On Thursday, the 10 year traded at 128bp over Treasuries - beating last week's record intra-day price - before slumping back to the 125bp level. Corporate spreads followed agencies and swaps. But swap dealers report that trading volume is still extremely thin and the market was moving up on only very small trades.

The prospect of a 15 year zero coupon offering for Poland's Autostrada Wielkopolska look brighter with the Polish government poised to grant a sovereign guarantee for the bond element of the Eu622m motorway project in the next few weeks. Autostrada's debut international bond would mark a major step forward in the development of the project bond market in the central and eastern European region.

DOMESTIC politics overshadowed the Republic of Turkey's return to the international bond markets this week. But lead managers BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank claimed that the B1/B/B+ rated sovereign had nevertheless won over investors to its five year euro offering. The two banks were mandated on Tuesday afternoon to run the books on a Eu500m transaction and by launch yesterday (Thursday) had managed to drum up enough orders to support a Eu600m issue.

T-ONLINE's Eu4bn IPO looks set for the Neuer Markt, having previously been expected to list on the Amtlicher Handel. The move will firmly establish the Neuer Markt as a leading exchange and is being seen as seminal by bankers involved with the deal. The company's desire to be compared with similar firms in the EuroNM index prompted its decision to list on the Neuer Markt. Just 9% of the ISP will be listed by bookrunners Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and Goldman Sachs.

Telecom Italia (TI) has mandated BNP Paribas and WestLB to structure a securitisation programme backed by charges on its Italian telephone customers, and to underwrite the first issue from the vehicle. The lead managers declined to comment, but TI, the dominant provider of fixed line telephony in Italy, is believed to intend raising around Eu4bn from a repeat issuance securitisation vehicle that will likely parcel a range of assets. Market participants said the core element of collateral will be phone bills from private customers, but corporate bills may also be included, and other revenues such as equipment sales may be added if that proves feasible.

HSBC Bank is preparing to launch its first collateralised loan obligation, parcelling $850m of loans, 80% of them to UK corporates. The floating rate deal is expected to have a five year maturity, and will be lead managed by HSBC Markets. Clover Funding No 1 plc will use an innovative structure combining the UK trust technique first employed on Sumitomo Bank's £1.395bn Aurora Funding transaction, launched in April 1998, with US style master trust technology.

KDB Capital Corp, the leasing arm of Korea Development Bank, this week launched only the second public term securitisation of South Korean assets to be sold to international investors, with a $101m transaction lead managed by Crédit Lyonnais. Securitisation began to take off in Korea at the end of 1998, but so far most of the deals have either been backed by offshore assets, or sold in won to domestic investors.

US credit card issuer MBNA made a lightning raid on the dollar ABS market this week, as Lehman Brothers launched a $1.5bn five year floating rate deal. The deal was prompted by large reverse enquiry orders from two or three US investors. Launched on Tuesday at $1bn, it was increased by 50% the same day as demand flowed in from the wider market.

Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie di Chieti, a regional bank in the Italian region of Abruzzi, this week launched only the second securitisation of Italian performing mortgages, and the first since Italy's securitisation law came into force in April 1999. In a highly unusual structure devised by lead manager Caboto, the deal packaged two separate securitisations in a single vehicle, Creso 1 Srl - a Eu35.9m transaction backed by performing mortgages and a Eu37.9m deal parcelling non-performing loans.

CIBC World Markets last Friday priced the first Canadian securitisation to achieve the market's favoured semi-annual pay bullet structure with long term amortising collateral, in a $500m auto and motorcycle loan deal for Honda Canada Finance Inc. The Canadian term ABS market is small, with C$5.5bn of issuance in 1999. That is partly because, since the advent a few years ago of bullet deals backed by revolving assets like credit cards and lines of credit from the country's banks, investors have been loath to buy amortising deals. Assets like auto loans have been funded in the ABCP market - Honda alone had chalked up over $2bn of deals before this.

Salomon Smith Barney last week closed a highly innovative club funding vehicle for 29 small US banks, in which each bank issued a 30 year trust preferred security (TRUPS) to a special purpose vehicle, Regional Diversified Funding Ltd. All but one of the TRUPS has the same fixed rate coupon. The vehicle issued $225m of senior bonds rated A+ by Duff & Phelps and A1 by Moody's and $16.702m of subordinated, unrated income notes. Almost all the senior notes have been sold, and the equity was placed with a single investor.