Dataviz · data through September 2026

Record insolvencies, yet still 32,824 below trend

Every month, the Banque de France (France's central bank) releases its insolvency figures. Every month, the French press leads with a new record. Pull up 26 years of data, pick your baseline, and see what survives the panic.

Last 12 months
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Current pace
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Gap with baseline
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Balance since March 2020
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Context
In March 2020, President Macron promised the state would do "whatever it takes" to keep French businesses alive through the pandemic. Paris then rolled out one of the most generous corporate rescue packages in Europe: state-guaranteed loans, short-time work schemes, tax deferrals, and a temporary freeze on insolvency proceedings. The intended consequence was lower bankruptcies in 2020 and 2021. The inevitable one was a catch-up once the support was phased out, this is the story everyone is now watching. The question is whether the catch-up is excessive, or simply the bill finally coming due.
Our reading · November 2026 (data through September 2026)

September 2026: France's worst month for insolvencies on record

7,287 French businesses failed in September 2026. That is the highest monthly count in the entire Banque de France series, which starts in 2000: above September 2025 (6,916), and above September 2009, at the height of the financial crisis (6,621).

September is always a heavy month, as the courts catch up after the August break. The better gauge is the twelve-month total: 71,139 at the end of September, also a record for the series, up from 68,125 a year earlier (+4.4%). Before COVID, the peak never went above 64,000.

The rise is not slowing: +3.6% over 2025 as a whole, +4.4% over the last twelve months, and +5.3% year to date compared with the first nine months of 2025.

Previous readings (1)
Our reading · April 2026 (data through February 2026)

France is two years deeper into the same story

If this sounds familiar, the UK had its own post-COVID insolvency scare in 2023 and the US had its own PPP hangover. France is simply two years deeper into the same story.

For international comparison: BPCE reports France's insolvency rate in 2025 at 1.1%, the same level as 2019. The absolute count is higher mostly because the stock of French businesses has grown, driven by a surge in micro-entrepreneur registrations, France's simplified self-employment status created in 2009.

Baseline period
The five years immediately before the pandemic. The strictest baseline.
Smoothing
One-year rolling average. Smooths out seasonal noise.

Business insolvencies in France, 2000-2026

Raw monthly counts: the dip every August is the courts' summer recess. Each dot is one month of data.

Monthly (raw) Rolling average Baseline "Whatever it takes" stimulus Catch-up
Reading this chart: The dashed horizontal line is the monthly average for the baseline period you selected. The green zone marks the "whatever it takes" era (Mar 2020, Dec 2022), when French state support suppressed insolvencies well below trend. The pink zone (Jan 2023 onward) is the catch-up. Pick 2015-2019 as the baseline and notice that the red rolling-average line spent five full years below the dashed reference. That is the part of the story that rarely makes the headlines.
Cumulative balance since March 2020
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Insolvencies avoided 2020-2022
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Excess since 2023
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Insolvencies by firm size

Excluding micro-enterprises (small, medium-sized, mid-cap and large firms), 2,109 insolvencies over the 12 months to September 2026, +130% on 2019 and +71% on the 2010-2019 average. For them, the catch-up is over: since October 2019, 1,773 more insolvencies than the 2015-2019 trend.

Micro-enterprises, 97% of insolvencies, drive the total: 69,030 over 12 months, +37% on 2019, and still 38,563 below the 2015-2019 trend since October 2019.

Number of insolvencies over a rolling 12 months, 2019 = 100.
501001502002502010201520202025
Excluding micro-enterprisesMicro-enterprises2019 = 100"Whatever it takes" stimulus
Size12 months to September 2026vs 2019vs 2010-2019 averageBalance since October 2019Record since 2006?
Micro-enterprises69,030+37%+20%−38,563yes
of which "micro-enterprises and unknown size"65,633+35%+18%−41,827yes
of which "very small enterprises"3,397+122%+74%+3,264yes
Excluding micro-enterprises2,109+130%+71%+1,773no
of which small firms1,544+137%+75%+1,385yes
of which medium-sized firms503+111%+58%+306no
of which mid-caps and large firms62+130%+96%+83no

Mid-caps and large firms account for only 62 cases over 12 months: their percentages swing a lot from one month to the next.

By firm size, the Banque de France only publishes the 12-month total, never the single month. The balance in this table therefore compares each 12-month period ending in September with the 2015-2019 annual average, since October 2019: it cannot be compared with the balance of the total, computed month by month since March 2020.

Banque de France, number of business insolvencies over 12 months by firm size, raw, latest month published: September 2026.

Source. Banque de France, raw monthly count of insolvencies, latest month published: September 2026, updated daily. Sources and methodology

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