"We dont take sectoral views, it doesnt work that way," director of risk Paul Flanagan told PrintWeek. "All individual risk decisions are taken on a company-by-company basis and are not just based on the latest set of accounts we go above and beyond that and make hundreds of visits to companies every year so we know whats going on in the marketplace.

"Even in badly performing sectors there are companies performing well, with margins that are above average," he added. "We believe we have the best database of information, but obviously we cant make decisions if no information is available."

A Euler committee will meet today to review Polestars case, after cutting the groups cover earlier this month. It is believed that Polestars credit insurance will be reinstated, but at a lower level than the group had previously.