Last year was one of unprecedented difficulties for the loan market as the fallout from the credit crunch, which first reared its head in the middle of 2007, led to a wider global financial crisis. The complete loss of confidence in the financial system ripped apart institutional and in some cases sovereign balance sheets, resulting in a series of enforced consolidations and recapitalisations across the banking sector. The capital rationing and deleveraging which subsequently followed made it very difficult to establish any sort of consistency in the loan market.
