Don’t panic just yet on the very small business (TPE) lending front. Despite the significant rise in interest rates, applications and grants remain at a good level, says the Banque de France in its latest report covering the third quarter.
On the application side, 4% of VSEs have made an application in the last three months, after 5% in the second quarter of 2022, that is, a level comparable to the pre-crisis level.
However, applications for new investment loans from VSEs have slightly decreased and are still slightly below pre-crisis levels, with 6% of VSEs having made an application in the last three months, in compared to 11% in the last quarter of 2019.
These requests from banks continue to be largely fulfilled: 91% of loan requests to finance real estate investments or purchase equipment are fulfilled in whole or in part.
Increase in the cost of credit
However, cash loan awards are on the decline as only 73% of VSEs that have applied in the last three months have received more than three-quarters of the amount requested, compared to 80% in the first quarter and 79% in the second quarter. . . However, it is still higher than at the end of 2019, the central bank underlines.
“The various aids paid to VSEs to deal with the health crisis have allowed them to recover, maintain their results or even improve them significantly for certain sectors of activity”, declares Yves Marmont, president of the FCGA, the Federation of centers management.
Logically, the proportion of companies that declare an increase in the global cost of credit is increasing. In fact, 36% of SMEs and 53% of midcaps report an increase in this cost. At the same time, the proportion of companies reporting a drop in the cost of credit is less than 2% for both SMEs and ETIs.
Source: BFM TV
