The GFC may have seen some high profile top end corporate collapses, but the recent entry by the Australian arm of the Krispy Kreme doughnut chain into voluntary administration has raised the possibility of a new chapter of distress in the mid-market.

"We're a bit concerned about the mid-market at the moment," said Henry Davis York managing partner Sharon Cook. "There were the spectacular big insolvencies during the GFC, but what we didn't see was the collapse of the middle market - the pubs and the retail outlets, the A$10m to A$100m part of the market."

The fate of many mid-market corporates may lie squarely with the banks. "What we think was happening during the GFC was that the banks were actually being relatively generous and not putting [defaulting borrowers] into liquidation in the hope that they'd be able to trade out," said Cook. "Now the question is with interest rates going up and maybe inflation starting to come into play, whether the banks are going to be able to continue to do that. There are a lot of mid-market companies teetering on the edge at the moment and it will be interesting to see whether the banks will continue to be as generous as they have been in the past."