Microcredits are popular with the French.
According to a Banque de France report, the number of loans granted is up by more than 7% for personal microcredit and 4% for professional microcredit.
This type of loan is mainly aimed
at "people excluded from the traditional banking system due to insufficient income or a situation of social insecurity
".
It allows, for example, to develop projects, to facilitate the return to employment or to encourage the creation of a business.
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The Banque de France thus observes “
a rebound after a year 2020 marked by a decline in the production of microcredits, in the health context of the time
”.
In total, these microcredits reached 1.7 billion euros at the end of 2021. The increase in requests is also reflected in the “
deployment of departmental councils for financial inclusion
”.
Since January 2022, more than 500 budget advice points have been set up in France.
François Villeroy de Galhau, Governor of the Banque de France, also notes “
the considerable work of associations and municipal centers for social action, which support a large number of people facing budgetary difficulties on a daily basis
”.
A “moderate level” of over-indebtedness
At the end of 2021, these people represented 4.1 million bank customers, up 8% year on year (3.8 million at the end of 2020).
But in reality, the situation of households has not deteriorated.
The numbers of over-indebtedness or payment incidents remained “
at a moderate level
” from one year to the next.
The change is explained by “
better identification
” carried out by the Banque de France.
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The institution has also strengthened its protection system, with an automatic cap on banking incident fees.
In one year, the average annual amount of these costs has fallen by 17%, to stand at 118 euros at 31 December.
Customers in financial difficulty were also able to subscribe to a specific offer, allowing them to further cap their incident costs.
At the end of 2021, 690,000 of them subscribed to this offer, i.e. 15% more in one year, and twice as many as in 2017. "
The first quarter of 2022 confirms this trend
", underlines the Banque de France in its press release .
