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tephen West is believed to be close to taking a senior job at Credit Suisse First Boston, in what would be one of the most high-profile moves in international debt capital markets so far this year. CSFB spokesmen did not return calls seeking clarification, and it is not known exactly what the role under discussion is - nor how West would fit in with existing management such as John Walsh, CSFB's co-head of global debt. But any move would be at a senior level, and may be based in New York.

n Société Générale this week executed the first European weather derivative transaction arranged by a bank, as it wrote a two year collar for Soccram, a French company that supplies heating and cogeneration equipment, as well as heating fuels. SG would not reveal the amount of money involved, or the exact triggers used to determine payouts, but the essence of the transaction is that during the next two October to April periods, Soccram will be protected against mild weather that would reduce its sales.

A new housing association was created in the UK this week, as South Somerset Homes Ltd acquired a portfolio of social housing from South Somerset District Council, partly financed by a securitisation. The £67m transaction, wrapped by monoline insurer AMBAC and lead managed by Paribas, is a corporate obligation of the housing association, but is also secured on the 8,818 social housing properties and 109 shared ownership properties that South Somerset Homes is acquiring.

Vlaamse Huisvestingsmaatschappij, the social housing agency of Belgium's Flanders region, this week launched a Eu324m mortgage securitisation that marks the beginning of a complete restructuring of social housing finance in Flanders. Devised by VHM and its structuring adviser Fredell & Co, the Swedish securitisation boutique, the transaction parcels loans extended to home buyers by 11 sociale kredietvennootschappen (social credit institutions).

Ford Credit Europe, which provides finance for buyers of Ford cars, will next week launch the long awaited second issue from its Globaldrive securitisation programme, lead managed by Deutsche Bank. The Eu511m transaction will parcel German car loans - the first securitisation of the asset class since Volkswagen's two deals in 1996. It will offer some Eu490m of senior notes rated triple-A by Moody's and Standard & Poor's, with an average life of 3.9 years after a three year revolving period, and Eu20m of single-A rated bonds with a 5.1 year average life.

The investor base has shrunk dramatically, with hedge funds and proprietary traders cutting their activities after last year's losses and many mainstream institutional investors simply deciding, after numerous crises, that the boom-bust nature of the asset class is not for them.

Municipalities from central and eastern Europe have featured prominently in the vanguard of credits from the region to have tapped the Euromarkets, with the likes of Bratislava, Moscow, Prague and Tallinn among the very first international bond issuers from their respective countries.

The new issue markets can be open one day and shut the next. And, in an environment of high spread volatility where investors can often find a better bargain in the secondary market, there can be no room for error.

Heterogeneity is one of the biggest problems facing the European municipal market, perhaps second only to the lack of liquidity. Government structures and bankruptcy laws differ between countries, and there is little uniformity in the mechanisms which guarantee local government debt.

But that is not going to happen overnight. With European investors reluctant to take on emerging market risk until the Brazilian situation becomes clearer, even the best Latin sovereign borrowers are struggling to get a proper foothold in the new market. As for corporate issuers, it could be a long wait.