Access to bank financing for companies - 2025-Q2

Published on the 4th of August 2025

Demand for business loans is stabilising along with the cost of credit.
  • Requests for investment loans remained stable for Mid-Sized Companies (MSC) and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) compared to the previous quarter. They remain at a very low level for cash flow loans.

  • Investment and cash flow loan approval rates remain high, despite a slight decline compared to the previous quarter for investment loans to MSC and SME, and for cash flow loans to MSC.

  • The share of companies reporting an increase in the overall cost of credit continues to fall.
NB: bank credits alone are examined in this survey; MTEs have access to private financing options, which provides them with financing solutions not covered by this survey.

1. Requests for investment loans in % of companies
2. Grants for investment loans in % of companies having applied for this type of credit (fully fulfilled or at least at 75%)
3. Requests for new cash credits in % of companies
4. Grants for cash credits in % of companies having applied for this type of credit (fully fulfilled or at least at 75%)
Data not seasonally adjusted, in %; excluding use of previously granted credit lines
Scope: companies with autonomy to decide on credit applications: SME = 10 - 249 employees; MTE = 250 - 4999 employees



New investment loans
  • The proportion of companies applying for new investment loans remains stable at 19% for SME and falls to 26% for MSC in Q2 2025 (see Chart 1).

  • Approval rates for these loan applications are very high for both SME and MSC: 97% of SME and MSC that applied for a loan obtained it in full or for more than 75% of the amount requested (see Chart 2).
New cash flow loans
  • The proportion of companies requesting new cash flow loans remains low. It has risen slightly to 6% for SME, while remaining at 5% for MSC (see Chart 3).

  • For this type of credit, the rates of obtaining all or more than 75% of the loan are increasing for both SME and MSC. Over the last quarter, the approval rate for SME rose from 84% to 86%, while the rate for MSC increased from 91% to 95% (see Chart 4).
Additional information
1 - Credit lines

For operating needs, SMEs and MTEs can apply (usually at the beginning of the year) for credit lines granting them drawing rights throughout the year.

  • Requests have remained stable for several quarters across all business sizes: almost a third of SME and nearly half of MSC have applied for credit lines in the past 12 months (see Chart 5).

  • These requests continue to be largely granted (in full or for more than 75%) in over 95% of cases for both SME and MSC.

  • 54% of SME drew on their credit lines, a level comparable to that of the previous quarter. For MSC, 55% drew on their credit lines, a decrease of 5 percentage points compared with Q1 2025.

Requests for new credit lines over the last 12 months (in % of companies) and mobilization of credit lines over the last 3 months (in % of companies having been granted new lines)


2- Supply rate for equipment loans

Among investment loans, equipment loans are intended to finance intangible or tangible assets, excluding real estate.

  • Approval rate for equipment loans remains high across all company sizes: 93% of SME and 90% of MSC that applied for this type of loan obtained it either in full or for more than 75% of the requested amount (Graph 6).
Grants for equipment loans in % of companies having applied for this type of credits (fulfilled at least at 75%)


3- Evolution of the cost of credit
  • In Q2 2025, 88% of SME and 90% of MSC reported that the overall cost of credit had remained stable or decreased (see Chart 7).

  • Compared with the previous quarter, the proportion of businesses reporting an increase in the overall cost of credit fell again, to 12% for SME (down 4 points) and 10% for MSC (down 2 points).

  • The proportion of SME reporting a decrease in the overall cost of credit compared with the previous quarter rose by 3 points to 24%. For MSC, the figure remained stable at 36%.
  • A greater proportion of businesses reported that the cost of credit was stable compared with last quarter: 64% of SME (up by 1 point) and 54% of MSC (up by 2 points).
Share of companies reporting an increase or a decrease in the cost of credit (in % of companies)


More information on time series, calendar, methodology

All statistical time series published by the Banque de France can be accessed on Webstat Banque de France

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STAT INFO - 2nd quarter 2025

Access to bank financing of companies

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4. Self-censorship
Self-censorship refers to a situation in which a company does not apply for new bank credit because it anticipates that the banks will refuse. This phenomenon remained marginal in Q2 2025: fewer than 2% of businesses reported self-censorship as a reason for not applying for cash credit lines or investment credit.

Lack of need is the main reason given by businesses for not applying for cash credit: 89% of SME and 91% of MSC cited this reason. Similarly, in the case of investment credit, 86% of SME and 90% of MSC stated that they had not applied for credit due to a lack of need. Refusal to take on additional debt and the company's unfavourable situation were also mentioned as reasons for not applying for credit.
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Updated on the 1st of August 2025