In Brief: First USA Note Issue Meets Some Resistance

NEW YORK - First USA Bank, a credit card specialist, recently encountered some difficulty in issuing $150 million in bank deposit notes, due Oct. 23, 2000.

Some analysts said investors initially appeared to be reluctant to buy the debt of a credit card issuer, though the deal later gained some momentum. Investors warmed to the notes after the price was brought down a few basis points, analysts said.

Some investors are uncomfortable with credit card banks at this point in the credit cycle because of the possibility of rising delinquencies on consumer loans, one bank analyst said.

"Deposit notes are a structure some investors don't know all that well," a bank bond trader added.

The issue, priced at 99.688, had a coupon of 6.375% to yield 6.449%.

The noncallable issue was priced at a spread of 65 basis points above Treasuries.

Led by Smith Barney Inc., the issues were rated Baa2 by Moody's Investors Service and BBB-minus by Standard & Poor's Ratings Group.

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