Jules Stewart reports on Banca Nazionale del Lavoro’s arrival on the securitisation scene and how it has become Italy’s frontrunner for RMBS.
Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL) was something of a latecomer to the securitisation market. It only started planning its first transaction in 2002, however, it has since powered into a leading market position among Italian issuers.

Although the amount of capital that European banks raised last year was small compared with their market capitalisation, the market was more active than superficial statistics suggest. Charles Lucas, global head of financial institutions at ABM AMRO Rothschild, reports on banks’ equity capital markets activities in 2003.

Sam Zavatti, global head of financial institutions at ABN AMRO, says the bank’s breadth of operations and product offerings make it well-placed to offer advice on adapting to Basel II requirements.

The president of Merrill Lynch’s global markets and investment banking division tells Suzanne Miller about Merrill’s new regime of profitability as it focuses on rebuilding business following the brutal bear market years.

Amid a dearth of alternative investment grade lending opportunities, banks continue to provide their relationship clients with aggressively-priced syndicated loans. Unless M&A activity increases this year, bankers fear loan pricing could fall even further. Joanna Hickey reports.

Goldman Sachs drew on its expertise in inflation-linked bonds in an innovative 15-year issue for Agence France Trésor. Geraldine Lambe reports on how it suggested the move and helped make the deal.

Employment giant Adecco has been hit by a raft of problems at its North American arm, resulting in a stock slide, rating downgrade and official investigations in New York. Geraldine Lambe reports.

Inflation is once again being discussed and inflation-linked instruments have stepped back into the spotlight. Natasha De Teran finds that derivatives have as much of a role to play as inflation-protected securities.

Securitisation is dead, long live covered bonds – that would be one interpretation of events in the capital markets driven by the onslaught of Basel II and IAS 39.

What Eliot Spitzer was to Wall Street, the Stuttgart private law firm Binz & Partners may now be to Finanzplatz Deutschland – the instigator of a legal process that calls investment banks and company executives to account but raises the question of whether this is the best way of doing it or merely the most politically exciting.