The problems are at their most acute for those large companies that are rated below investment grade and that for one reason or another – an accident of timing or a sudden worsening of business conditions – need to refinance their debt. It is these businesses that face most difficulties right now.

Of course, life is far from easy for small and medium-sized enterprises. Credit is scarce, not least because overseas lenders are pulling out of the market, and terms and conditions have become more onerous. But the big British banks have increased their loans to this sector over the past year and these smaller companies are not so exposed to the very large funding gap at the heart of the banking problem.

The gap arises because of the freezing up of wholesale financial markets around the world and you can measure it in different ways. Sir James Crosby, in his November report on mortgage finance, suggested it would take about ￡100bn spread over this year and next just to deal with the shortfall in mortgage finance.