Despite decade-high consumer savings rates, the debt business is holding up, if the performance of small-cap debt solution providers Credit Corp Group and FSA Group is anything to go by.

Meanwhile, litigation funder IMF (Australia) has put up a relatively strong performance, as it profits from the fallout of the global financial crisis through its involvement with high-profile cases including Centro Properties Group and Lehman Brothers, showing economic and market pessimism is not necessarily a hindrance for all business.