marketwatch NEWS (TT Mar09 p4-8)

Speculative-grade default rates around the world have risen steeply, according to credit rating agency Moody’s.

More than £1.1bn of fraud came before the UK courts last year, the second highest level recorded in 21 years and exceeded only in 1995, according to KPMG Forensic.

At a time when the global liquidity crisis is expected to fuel new merger and acquisition (M&A) activity this year, a report has claimed that failure rates remain at a high level despite the growing corporate experience of mergers over the last seven years.