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Ahmed Shibeer In the Balkans, a number of firms announced alliances or firm acquisitions. In Serbia GECIĆ LAW acquired Colic Law Office, an M&A and litigation boutique with Ognjen Colic taking up the role of head of corporate. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, KARANOVIĆ & NIKOLIĆ announced its expansion into the Republic of Srpska through a cooperation with Banja Luka based Goran Babic, a finance partner and former lawyer at Hypo Alpe Adria. Finally DIMITRIJEVIĆ & PARTNERS (Bosnia and Herzegovina), ŽURIĆ & PARTNERS (Croatia) and BOJOVIĆ & PARTNERS (Serbia) formed a new alliance – SOUTH EAST LEGAL ALLIANCE (SELA) – in the Balkans.

And so 2016 draws to a close. The financial world is not a significantly different place to what it was a year ago but there is a sense that changes are imminent. While there has been much debate, speculation and even fear surrounding the UK's exit from the EU and the election of a businessman to govern the US, the moment when concrete plans are to be set in motion has not yet even happened. Brexit and Trump – two of the most significant words of 2016 – are set to make their mark even more profoundly next year. The first one by posing legal and regulatory questions that the EU has so far never in its history had to answer, the second by promising to 'make America great again'.

After months of speculation and uncertainty, the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect is officially up and running. The scheme, which is the second of its kind, was officially launched on December 5, linking the two bourses for the first time since the Shenzhen Stock Exchange was opened in 1991. It will allow international and Hong Kong investors to trade in 881 Shenzhen-listed stocks up to a quota of RMB13 billion ($1.89 billion), while PRC investors will have access to 417 Hong Kong-listed stocks and be subject to a daily quota of RMB10.5 billion.

When the UK's Tesco Bank was hacked in November, and the criminals made away with £2.5 million ($3.1 million) from 9,000 customer accounts, it was called the worst cyber-attack in British banking history. The firm's response involved a call to other banks to work together as an industry, to protect consumers and the financial system as a whole.

Rodrigo Taboada Ana Carolina Álvarez On October 6 2016, the Nicaraguan Congress approved the Ley de Garantías Mobiliarias (the Law of Security on Movable Assets). This has been described as a legal instrument that will, among providing other benefits, enable small producers, and micro- and medium-sized companies to access bank credit and micro finance institutions using their own assets as security. This will be done through the subscription of a written agreement between the grantor and the creditor that may be in a public, private or electronic document.

The lighter side of the past month in the world of financial law

Ha Hoang Loc Nguyen Thi Minh Phuong The Council of Justices of the Supreme People's Court has legal authority to select trial decisions and judgments from all courts which have taken legal effect in order to develop them into judicial case law. It can then publish this case law for the courts to apply in adjudicating subsequent cases.

Fabiola Cammarota de Abreu Ricardo Lara Gaillard In August 2016, the tribunal of the Brazilian antitrust authority (the Administrative Council for Economic Defense or Cade) reversed a previous decision of its General Superintendence. This previous decision held that down payments violated the so-called gun jumping rules laid down in Cade's guidelines. In doing so, Cade issued its first precedent on the legality of a down payment and the payment of reverse break-up fees in M&A transactions, vis-à-vis the current gun jumping regulations.

Manuel Atencia Ignacio Inigo Starting in 2011, the Spanish legislator has introduced a series of reforms which have included the possibility to cram-down creditors through the Spanish scheme of arrangement (homologación judicial).

Daniel Futej Dalimir Jančovič The new act on local development fees came into force in Slovakia on November 1 2016. Under the act, a fee will be charged for certain construction activities that take place in municipalities and cities. The act is a response to the extensive development in towns and municipalities that need new infrastructure but do not have the finances to fund the building. Investors pay the fee, and local governments should use the revenue to build technical and social infrastructure.