IFR: How are high-grade names such as Pemex viewing the bank market versus, say, bonds, local versus international, etc? Merino: We have not been accessing the market that much. But definitely there is an interest in the local markets for paper like Pemex or the federal government, as there is in the foreign market. One of the issues is, what can the government do to increase liquidity [such as bringing in more foreign investors]? We think the withholding tax issue is something that needs to be

IFR: What other infrastructure projects are there? And what sort of structures are we likely to see emerging from these, and are investors interested? Ricardo Cano: Infrastructure is definitely of interest for investors and I think what we are going to see in terms of structured deals is MBSs, other types of ABS deals and the toll roads. But it is hard to imagine that some of the energy type infrastructure transactions will go to the local markets, given that it is more a dollar-based sector. Ty

IFR: What is the outlook for peso financing this year and what impact has the volatility in the US had on Mexican markets? Ricardo Fernández (Credit Suisse): Regarding what has happened in terms of the impact from global markets versus what we have seen locally, we have not really seen issuers coming to market after this turmoil. So it remains to be seen what is going to happen. It is more an issue of pricing rather than credit. In Mexico credit issues are more isolated than what they have been

Nicolas Boulay - Calyon Boulay is Calyon’s senior country officer for Mexico. He has more than 13 years of experience in the Mexican and Latin American financial markets, during which time he has structured and executed numerous transactions for public and private companies throughout the region. Prior to joining Calyon, he was head of BNP Paribas’ Latin American energy and commodities structured finance team in New York. Guadalupe Merino - Pemex Merino is associate managing director of finance

Mexico has not been immune to the disruptions caused by US sub-prime problems. But thanks to what is essentially a captive investor base, the country's capital markets have proven relatively resilient. The success of President Felipe Calderon in pushing key fiscal reforms through Congress has also helped buoy sentiment, though nagging worries about a possible US recession are acting as a counter weight. As of August, pension funds alone had about US$72bn of assets under management, and were seei