that in the first half of 2000 that the amount of ABC paper issued in Europe amounted to $61.4 billion.8The assets underlying these European ABC programs are similar to those in the United States, namely, trade receivables, consumer loans, credit card receivables, equip- ment leases, etc. Moreover, there are an increasing number of programs designed to engage in arbitrage in the fixed-income market by financing the purchase of asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities with ABC paper. Another expanding area is using structured finance to finance cross-border trade receivables for multinational corporations.   8Jean Dornhofer and Annick Poulain, "Mid-Year Review European ABCP Market: A Pause in the Race," Moodys Investors Service, 2000.     The ABC paper market in Australia is well-developed but consider- ably smaller than the market in either Europe or the U.S. Moodys reports that as of October 1999, the amount of ABC paper outstanding exceeded A$10 billion.9 The key difference in the Australian market is that the majority of ABC paper outstanding is used for arbitrage in the fixed- income market primarily mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities as well as term corporate loans.   Foreign Currency Denominated Commercial Paper Synthetic foreign currency denominated commercial paper allows inves- tors to earn non-U.S. interest rates without exposure to non-U.S. counter- parties or political risk. Two examples are Goldman Sachs Universal Commercial Paper or Merrill Lynchs Multicurrency Commercial Paper. The process works as follows. First, a U.S. borrower issues commercial paper in a currency other than U.S. dollars, say German marks, while simultaneously entering into a currency swap with a dealer. The commer- cial paper issuer faces no foreign exchange risk because the currency swap effectively allows the issuer to borrow U.S. dollars at German interest rates. Investors can then invest in commercial paper issued by a U.S. counterparty denominated in German marks.       MEDIUM-TERM NOTES   A medium-term note (MTN) is a corporate debt instrument with a char- acteristic akin to commercial paper in that notes are offered continuously to investors by an agent of the issuer. Investors can select from several maturity ranges: 9 months to 1 year, more than 1 year to 18 months, more than 18 months to 2 years, and so on up to any number of years. Medium-term notes issued in the United States are registered with the