The use of credit mediation by companies fell sharply in 2022 due to the resilience of the economy after the health crisis, according to data published Monday by the Banque de France.
Credit mediation is a process created in 2009 through which the Banque de France intervenes for businesses with commercial banks or credit insurers.
Over the whole of 2022, credit mediation received 2,180 eligible requests, compared to 3,937 the previous year, i.e. a drop of 45% despite the extension of its field of intervention to loans guaranteed by the State ( PGE) subscribed during the health crisis, detailed the Banque de France in a press release.
About a quarter of referrals concerned PGEs, while most of the requests (78%) come from very small businesses with less than 11 employees, active in the service (52%), trade (22%) and building (13%).
Falling demand in the second half of 2022
Businesses have shown strong resilience despite the war-related energy price spike in Ukraine, largely thanks to government and bank support, with access to bank financing remaining wide open. how Frdric Visnovsky, national credit mediator within the institution.
After referrals still high in the first half of 2022, requests for mediation fell in the second half, returning to levels equivalent to those observed in 2019 before the pandemic, detailed the Banque de France in a press release. That year, 1,035 referrals were recorded.
We have fewer files, but companies that are more fragile than what we could have known before the crisis, which means that the success rate of mediation has reduced, qualified Mr. Visnovsky during a press conference. .
save up to 70% on your borrower insurance
With regard to PGEs, more than 95% of companies that have benefited from them repay them on time. More than 40 billion euros in loans have thus been repaid out of a total of 143 billion granted.
In 2022, restructuring requests concerned 598 files, which were successful in 44% of cases, i.e. 262 companies.
At the end of January, the Minister of the Economy announced the extension until the end of 2023 of an agreement with the Banque de France and the French Banking Federation allowing the companies most in difficulty to spread out the reimbursement of PGEs.
Reproduction forbidden.