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Faced with Covid, companies have never had so much access to bank loans

2021-02-03T14:20:28.810Z


The refusal of financing, for both cash loans and investment loans, remained marginal in 2020, according to data from the Banque de France.


139.4 billion euros for the whole of 2020. Loans granted to businesses by banks soared last year with the Covid crisis, up 13% compared to 2019, according to data from the Banque de France.

Such a level had not been reached since 2007.

Read also: To avoid bankruptcy, Bercy and professionals in the sector urge SMEs to go to court

For ten months, loans guaranteed by the State (PGE) have placed companies in France on a drip, strengthening their cash flow during the collapse of activity.

The State guarantees 90% of the EMP, the rest of the financial risk weighs on the banks in the event of default.

Driven by state support, cash loans doubled compared to 2019. EMPs thus represented the majority of loans granted to businesses (89.1 billion euros).

At the same time, faced with the lack of visibility due to an unstable epidemic situation, the structures were less rushed on investment credits.

Demand has even been halved compared to last year for very small businesses (VSEs).

Overall, after two quarters of decline, the share of companies requesting new investment loans finally stabilized in the fourth quarter at a lower level than before the crisis, for both SMEs and very small businesses.

Marginal refusals

Faced with Covid, companies have never had so much access to bank loans, according to a survey published on Tuesday by the Banque de France.

The refusal of financing, for both cash and investment loans, remained marginal in 2020. In the fourth quarter, the rate of access of SMEs to cash loans remained at the high level reached in the third quarter. , with 90% of requests satisfied, in connection with obtaining PGE.

For their part, 87% of VSEs obtained all or most of the cash loans requested in the fourth quarter.

A historically high level since the start of the Banque de France survey in 2014. Before the crisis, only 71% of loan applications formulated by very small businesses had been conclusive over the same period in 2019.

On the mid-market side, one in two companies said they had applied for credit lines in the fourth quarter of 2020, after 47% in the third quarter of 2020. Among the companies that obtained them, nearly 52% used their possibility of drawing down during the last three month, compared to 56% in the previous quarter.

At the same time, mid-sized companies have also financed themselves on the private debt market.

VSEs, the first beneficiaries of the EMP

Banks have granted 132 billion euros of EMPs to around 650,000 companies in France since last March, 90% of which are very small businesses, according to the latest data.

These small structures represent a little less than 32% of the volume of loans guaranteed by the State.

Before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday, the Governor of the Banque de France, François Villeroy de Galhau estimated that "

4.5% to 6% of PGEs could not be reimbursed

", ie a possible loss of 8 billion euros.

A forecast close to that of the public investment bank Bpifrance.

Companies can now request a total delay of two years before starting to repay their EMP.

These loans are currently amortizable over a maximum of six years.

To avoid a repayment wall, the Minister of the Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire recently indicated that Bercy is working on a larger spread of repayments.

Under the effect of the policy of whatever the costs of the executive, the defaults fell last year to a low of thirty years.

But at the start of 2021, SMEs and mid-cap companies, cornered by the crisis, are starting to turn to credit mediation systems and commercial courts.

Source: lefigaro

All business articles on 2021-02-03

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