ON AUGUST 9 last year investment bank BNP Paribas announced a "complete evaporation of liquidity in the market". This led to the European Central Bank injecting more than 200billion Euro into the banking market and is acknowledged to have been the start of the "credit crunch".
Various horror stories have made the national and international headlines ever since.
The impact upon business has been worrying, as shown by the recently-released Government insolvency statistics.
Company administrations have increased by 60% on last year and regrettably, our very own Cains will be added to the numbers for the next quarter.
Receiverships, which are enforcement procedures over commercial property, also increased by 130%. Profit warnings are at their highest level for six years.
This unique combination of challenges is particularly threatening to the three industries that have boomed most in Liverpool thanks to the availability of credit: property, leisure and retail.
The big name casualties in each sector - City Lofts, Cains and Lewis's - are the tip of an iceberg that could yet dent Liverpool's resurgence.
But as the economy enters a downturn, the larger firms of accountants and lawyers in the city will report that as the telephones in their real estate and mergers and acquisitions teams cool down, their turnaround specialists - by the nature of their assignments traditionally out of the spotlight - are increasingly in demand.
Behind the scenes locally, these teams and corporate recovery professionals are being engaged to advise banks and to help beleaguered directors review their options.
Refinancing and restructuring, with combinations of debt and equity, will be top of the agenda in many boardrooms around the city.
At Halliwells, we provided advice to Cains on a number of issues prior to administration and we are continuing to advise both lenders and directors in several other projects involving established local businesses.
Far from being terminal, the administration procedure that was used successfully by Lewis's and now by Cains is a procedure designed to rescue companies by protecting them from attack by creditors so that a valuable core business can be preserved, thus saving jobs.
Upon entering into administration, a moratorium is imposed which stops any enforcement action.
The procedure to get a company to this point has been simplified (and the cost reduced) over the past few years.
These factors, coupled with local and national "success stories", are part of the reason for the significant increase in the number of companies moving into administration.
It is important, in the these challenging times for business that city companies are aware there are teams of professionals housed in the large firms of accountants and lawyers that will be working hard to keep Liverpool's titanic growth on a course into calmer waters.
* Paul Spence is head of insolvency at Halliwells and advised Cains while it went into administration.