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Mexico Standard Chartered Bank is arranging a $120m term loan for Banco del Norte. The five year facility is priced at a split 1% rising to 1-3/8% over Libor.

China Nippon Life Insurance Co and Sumitomo Bank have been mandated to arrange a $50m term loan for China Petro-Chemical Corp (Sinopec).

NIGEL PAVEY, former publisher of Euroweek and the newspaper's long-serving syndicated loans reporter, is leaving to join Barclays Capital as a director in its syndicated loans and distribution team. In a new position for the bank, he will establish a dedicated strategic loan research and marketing function and will work closely with Sean Boylan, the director with day-to-day responsibility for transaction management, agency, research and marketing.

BANKGESELLSCHAFT Berlin has set up a US commercial paper conduit called Check Point Charlie, which will issue CP to fund Jersey registered bond arbitrage vehicles. CP Charlie, which is rated D-1+ by Duff & Phelps, debuted on Wednesday with $475m of CP. Proceeds from the issue will be lent to Portfolio Purchasing Company 1, which will invest in triple-A and double-A rated dollar denominated securities.

CITIBANK reaffirmed its presence in the French commercial mortgage market this week with a Ffr2.02bn securitisation of five office blocks in the La Défense complex near Paris. The Euromarket deal, through SPV La Défense plc, finances the acquisition by Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec of a 90% stake in the buildings from Compagnie Générale des Eaux, which now owns them.

Citibank's long-awaited Swiss franc credit card securitisation was this week launched by CSFB in one of the most volatile weeks in the market for many years. Citibank Credit Card Master Trust 1 Series 1997-9 comprised Sfr1bn of class 'A' notes rated triple-A by Moody's and Standard & Poor's, and a Sfr64m subordinated tranche rated A2/A.

SALOMON Brothers brought a rare public securitisation from Colombia on Wednesday, backed by crude oil supplied by Empresa Colombiana de Petroleos (Ecopetrol). Oil Purchase Co 1997 Series A sold $290m of Euro/144A bonds with a legal maturity of October 2002, and expected maturity of April 2002 and average life of 2.66 years. The deal is rated Baa3 by Moody's and BBB by Standard & Poor's, and was sold at 99.933 to yield 125bp over Treasuries with a 7.1% coupon.

THE BELGIUM securitisation market is set to burst into action in coming weeks, with most of the country's top banks involved. Among the headline grabbers: asset-backed firsts for Generale Bank and Kredietbank. Those debutantes look set to be reinforced by repeat issues from both BBL and Bacob.

MERRILL Lynch Credit Corp launched its first home equity and mortgage securitisation of the year on yesterday (Thursday), with a $363.791m deal sole managed by Merrill Lynch. ML Revolving Home Equity Loan Asset-Backed Certificates Series 1997-1 issued floaters with a legal final maturity in September 2007 and average life of 3.7 years. The 10% par clean up call is expected to be exercised on March 25, 2004.

* UBS has completed a rare securitisation of store card receivables for Sears Financial Services Ltd, a subsidiary of the UK retailer. Sold through CP conduit Mont Blanc, the transaction will finance store cards accounts for a range of High Street names including Selfridges, Wallis and Warehouse. "It is essentially a revolving facility," said Peter Timothy, an associate director at UBS's securitisation group in London. "It assists Sears in freeing up working capital." As an asset class UK store cards provide attractive material for securitisation; while industry loss rates may be a little higher than for multi-use credit cards, yields are dramatically higher, in the high 20s, rather than the mid teens.

* Moody's has assigned a first time, non-investment grade rating to Union Bank of India (UBI). India's sixth largest commercial bank received a Ba1/Not Prime long and short term rating allied to a bank financial strength rating of E+. In its statement, the agency said that on the positive side the rating reflected the bank's "government ownership, close supervision from the Reserve Bank of India and UBI's extensive nationwide branch network". On the negative side was its "low profitability, undiversified income stream and unstable operating environment as well as its weak balance sheet".

CITIBANK will launch HK$500m to HK$750m of five year securities backed by credit card receivables from its Hong Kong branch later this month. The single tranche deal, the first denominated in the Hong Kong currency, will be guaranteed by Singapore based monoline insurer Asian Securitization and Infrastructure Assurance (ASIA Ltd), rated AA by Duff & Phelps and A by Standard & Poor's.