Corporate bankruptcies: key trends following six atypical years
Bulletin No. 265, article 1. Corporate bankruptcies continued to rise in France in 2025, albeit at a much slower pace than previously, increasing by 3.6% year on year after a 17.7% rise in 2024. A total of 68,602 insolvency proceedings were opened over the year, 15% above the 2010 19 average, in an unprecedented context marked by the historic lows of 2020 21. Bankruptcies of SMEs, intermediate sized enterprises (ISEs) and large enterprises (LEs) were 68% higher than the 2010 19 average. For microenterprises, which accounted for 92% of bankruptcies in 2025, the rise was much smaller at 12%.
Excluding microenterprises, the figures can no longer be attributed solely to a catch up effect after the Covid 19 pandemic. SMEs, ISEs and LEs that failed in 2025 had weaker financial positions and faced greater difficulties in maintaining their levels of activity.
For small enterprises, the increase in bankruptcies can partly be explained by strong growth in business births since 2016.
The Banque de France publishes monthly statistics on corporate bankruptcies. As a complement to these descriptive publications, this Bulletin puts the 2025 figures into perspective by comparing them with medium and long term trends and examining developments in firms’ financial positions and in business demographics.
The analysis shows that the economic landscape is still adjusting after the succession of shocks that followed the public health crisis. The number of corporate bankruptcies recorded in 2025 reflects the final phase of the post Covid catch up, the impact of successive shocks and trends in business births. These factors have had contrasting effects, depending on business size and sector of activity.
1 In 2025, the number of corporate bankruptcies continued to rise, albeit at a moderate pace
Growth in corporate bankruptcies slowed in 2025
A total of 68,602 corporate bankruptcies were recorded in 2025, the highest annual figure ever observed, surpassing even the levels seen during the 2008 financial crisis and the 2010 12 sovereign debt crisis. It was 15% higher than the 2010 19 (pre Covid) average of 59,342 per year (see Chart 1a).
Nonetheless, the increase in corporate bankruptcies since the end of the public health crisis follows a period when figures remained exceptionally low, due to the huge public support granted to firms to mitigate the economic effects of the Covid 19 pandemic. Just over 31,000 bankruptcies were recorded in 2020, and only 27,500 in 2021.
Numbers subsequently rebounded as the exceptional public support was withdrawn. However, corporate bankruptcies rose more slowly from 2023 onwards (see Chart 1b). In 2025, they increased by 3.6% compared with the previous year, after growth of 17.7% in 2024, 36.5% in 2023 and nearly 50% in 2022.
This slowdown can partly be attributed to a base effect. The exceptionally low number of bankruptcies in 2021 mechanically led to a sharp post pandemic rebound, and growth has gradually eased as the number of failures has stabilised. In the last four months of 2025, the rolling 12 month total of corporate bankruptcies increased by little more than 250. …
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Updated on the 1st of October 2026