More than 60 per cent of companies that were declared insolvent in the past year are alleged to have traded while insolvent and in 97 per cent of cases the dividend to unsecured creditors was less than 11 cents in the dollar.The Australian Securities and Investments Commission's report on corporate insolvencies in the 2015/16 financial year, which is based on 10,078 statutory reports lodged by liquidators, receivers and voluntary administrators, highlights the risks lenders take when they provide unsecured business finance.The majority of companies were small: 79 per cent had fewer than 20 employees; 86 per cent had estimated assets of $100,000 or less; and in 40.7 per cent of reports, the external administrator said the administration was "assetless".Trading while insolvent was not the only alleged misconduct: 42 per cent were wayward on the obligation to keep financial records; and in 38 per cent of cases directors and officers were alleged to have failed to exercise care and diligence.Altogether, reports alleging misconduct increased from 78.5 per cent in 2014/15 to 82.4 per cent in the year to June. ASIC sent 168 cases to police. There's no ducking the "top 3 nominated causes of failure", being "inadequate cash flow or high cash use", "poor strategic management of business" and "trading losses", respectively 43 per cent, 42 per cent and 33 per cent.ASIC said the "number of reports citing 'poor economic conditions' as a cause of failure of the company decreased from 20.6 per cent to 16.3 per cent whereas reports citing 'poor strategic management of business' increased from 42.1 per cent to 45.6 per cent and 'poor financial control including lack of records' increased from 30.4 per cent to 33.6 per cent.