THREE BN EURO FOR IRELAND AND PORTUGAL.

The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) is "soon" to start issuing bonds worth a total of three billion euro with a three-year yield to help Ireland and Portugal, it announced in a statement. The President of the EFSF, Klaus Regling, had stated in December that the bonds would be issued in January - without offering further details. Three banks were chosen to carry out this operation: Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Societe Generale. This will be the first time the EFSF issues three-year bonds - last year it issued five-year and ten-year bonds as well as three-month bonds.

In November, the EFSF raised three billion euro in ten-year bonds, but investors were not rushing to buy the bonds...