Use of credit mediation by companies declined in 2023, but cases receiving a positive response are significantly increasing, according to data published Monday by the Bank of France.
Credit mediation is a process created in 2009 and through which the Banque de France intervenes with banks or credit insurers for companies that are struggling to repay debt or obtain new financing.
Over the whole of 2023, credit mediation received 1,400 eligible files, compared to 2,175 the previous year, detailed the Banque de France in a press release.
During this year, credit mediation gradually returned to levels of requests comparable to the pre-pandemic situation, which confirms the normalization movement initiated in the second quarter of 2022, commented the institution.
A little more than a third (500) of referrals concerned state-guaranteed loans (PGE) taken out during the health crisis, while the majority of requests (62%) concerned refusals to grant a new loan. bank financing or relative difficulties with existing financing.
The response was positive in 60% of cases, a success rate up 17 points compared to 2022, here also a return to the pre-Covid level (64%). During the health crisis, the financial situation of companies was deteriorating, according to the Banque de France.
As in previous years, however, requests in 2023 came mainly (81%) from very small businesses (VSEs) with fewer than 11 employees active in the service sectors (51%), commerce (23%), extractive or manufacturing industries (11%) or construction (11%).
At the beginning of January, the Minister of the Economy announced the extension until the end of 2026 of an agreement allowing the companies most in difficulty to spread out the repayment of EMPs. More than 52% of the 143 billion borrowed by companies under this system have already been repaid.