Corporate insolvencies and distress index

This chart shows corporate insolvencies from Q1 2008 to Q4 2020.

The red line shows National insolvencies and the black line businesses in distress as an index of 100 starting Q1 2008.

In the Global Financial crisis in 2008 Corporate insolvencies almost doubled then quickly reduced until Q4 2009, glided down until Q4 2014, tracked sideways until Q4 2017 then rose slightly until Q2 2019 and since then there has been a sharp fall.

The black line is our proprietary 'business in distress index' which shows companies that are balance sheet insolvent, illiquid and had a reduction in shareholder funds in their last set of filed accounts.

The yellow highlighting shows the gap between companies in distress and companies going bust suggesting a pent-up demand for insolvencies.

... but in the deepest recession for 300 years with unprecedented Government business support corporate insolvencies have reduced sharply.

Business in Distress Index (with gap between businesses in distress and National stats highlighted in yellow)

Updated February 2021