Capital Raising & Corporate Finance

<strong>Management | Shareholder Activism</strong><br /> Activist investors are knocking more loudly at banks’ doors. According to Thomson Reuters data, in 2015, activists launched 97 campaigns aimed at the US financial sector, 22 of them targeting banks.

<strong>Capital Markets | Cross-Border Payments</strong><br /> Forty-five international banks have teamed up with the financial messaging provider Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) to launch an initiative aimed at making cross-border payments faster and more transparent.

<strong>Capital Marktes | M&A</strong><br /> State-owned China National Chemical’s record $43 billion bid for Swiss agrochemical company Syngenta will be closely examined by a US government panel and other national regulators.

<strong>Management | Cybersecurity</strong><br /> Multinational corporations face rising IT challenges and cyberattacks. Retailer Target, office supply chain store Staples and global banking powerhouse JPMorgan Chase are just a few major companies that have recently been hacked—and that have sustained financial costs and damage to their reputations as a result.

<strong>Capital Markets | Privatization</strong><br /> Russian president Vladimir Putin is pinning his hopes on privatization to help ease Russia’s 2016 budget deficit, which, according to some estimates, could reach $38 billion, or 6% of GDP.

The junk market is hurting. Experts predict the pain will continue, with defaults peaking a couple of years from now.