It's becoming personal. As the global crisis worsens, it is not merely the vast banking conglomerates or, indeed, national economies that are suffering; spare a thought for the people who regularly appeared on the world's rich lists and are now staring into the abyss.

Romain Zaleski, the French financier named this year by Forbes as one of the world's 500 wealthiest men, is reportedly being hounded by creditors, forcing him to cut his stakes in Royal Bank of Scotland and the Italian banks UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo.

The former special adviser to the French Industry Minister became an investor in Arcelor, the European steel group, leading him to play a key role in helping Lakshmi Mittal, of Britain, win his hostile bid for the company, forming Arcelor Mittal. “My influence is important,” he boasted to Forbes this year.

This week, Kostyantin Zhevago, 34, the Ukrainian oligarch who founded Ferrexpo, the London-listed iron ore miner, was forced to sell a 20 per cent stake in the company.

He had lodged the holding with JPMorgan as security for a loan he used for other investments, but Ferrexpo's plunging share price prompted the bank to make the dreaded “margin call”, where it demanded its money back immediately or the forced sale of the shares. Mr Zhevago is a member of the Ukrainian parliament and an aide to Julia Tymoshenko, Ukraine's firebrand Prime Minister.

Last week Oleg Deripaska, the Russian billionaire who is the founder and owner of a quarter of Norilsk Nickel, the mining group, was forced to sell his 20 per cent stake in Magna, the Canadian car parts maker. He, too, had pledged the stake to bankers as collateral and its value fell to a level that gave them the right to make a margin call. Now, as confidence in his financial health slips away, Norilsk shares have also collapsed amid fears that he will be forced to sell his stake there, as well.

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