The dynamic of French business failures will accelerate in 2026, mainly affecting small structures and certain sectors, against a backdrop of repeated economic shocks.
The first half of 2026 confirms the worrying trend observed since last year: business failures in France continue to soar. According to figures published Thursday July 16 by the Altares firm, “in the first half of 2026, 37,700 companies requested the opening of proceedings before the commercial court, i.e. 1,500 more than over the same period in 2025”. This figure is a continuation of an already exceptional year 2025, which “ended at a historic high, at 69,957 failures, according to the Altares census”.
Levels never reached, even during previous crises
The Banque de France underlines that the level of defaults recorded in 2025 “was not reached either during the financial crisis of 2008, nor at the time of the sovereign debt crisis (2010 to 2012)”. This unprecedented situation will continue in 2026, with an acceleration of the phenomenon: nearly 17,486 establishments requested the opening of collective proceedings before the commercial court in the second quarter of 2026, an increase of 5.4% over one year.
Judicial liquidation procedures, which result in the immediate cessation of activity, remain the majority and concern a little more than two thirds of cases. Judicial receiverships represent a little less than a third of insolvencies (31.7% in the second quarter). Safeguard procedures remain marginal with 349 cases, or less than 2% of the judgments handed down.
The wave of failures mainly affects small structures: companies with fewer than three employees account for three quarters of failures. Younger companies are also particularly exposed, with the majority of procedures concerning companies aged 3 to 5 years (4,913 in the second quarter). However, the increase does not spare older companies: insolvencies increased by 5.6% among companies over 16 years old.
Construction remains the most affected sector, with 4,186 companies affected in the second quarter, ahead of commerce (3,466, up 1.9%). The situation deteriorates significantly in business services, which recorded 2,562 failures, an increase of 13.9% on average. Certain activities have been particularly hard hit: communications and management consulting companies have seen procedures jump by nearly 20%, those of security by 22%, and the cleaning sector by 16.8%. The agricultural sector is not spared, with 444 procedures recorded, an increase of 21%.
Geographically, Ile-de-France, which concentrates the largest number of companies, recorded 4,305 procedures (+4.8%). But it is in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes that the progression is most marked, with an increase of 22.9% (2,418 procedures), particularly in Rhône and Isère.
Structural causes beyond post-pandemic catch-up
If, initially, the increase in failures was attributed to “catching up with failures avoided during the pandemic”, this factor alone no longer explains the current situation. “Catching up on the failures avoided during the pandemic is no longer enough to explain the levels reached,” also notes the Banque de France. The institution specifies that this catch-up has been fully absorbed by 2023 for mid-sized establishments, large and very small businesses, and in 2024 for SMEs.
The Banque de France now estimates that current levels of insolvencies are much more the result of “successive shocks” suffered by companies since the health crisis: wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, rising prices for energy, raw materials, customs duties, etc. Companies failing in 2025 are overall “more fragile” than those which failed in 2019: excluding the impact of loans guaranteed by the State, their debt rate is much higher (31% versus 25%), and their loss of turnover is greater.
Faced with these difficulties, companies are adopting “more prudent behavior in a context of growing economic uncertainties”: their level of cash flow and their margin rates are higher, which suggests “that companies need more cash flow and higher profitability to absorb economic shocks and ensure their survival”.
The Association for the Management of the Employee Claims Guarantee Scheme (AGS) confirms that French companies are facing “lasting difficulties”, its indicators published on July 6 showing “a new change of scale”. As of June 30, 2026, the AGS had mobilized 1.31 billion euros to guarantee the payment of salaries in companies in collective proceedings, an increase of 19.4% over one year. This represents 157,983 employees supported by the AGS since January, or 12% more than a year earlier, with increasingly qualified profiles.
A dynamic that questions the resilience of the economic fabric
The fragility of businesses is therefore “no longer to be found in the systems inherited from the management of the health crisis”. The deferral of Urssaf contributions or loans guaranteed by the State had artificially kept companies alive during the years 2020-2021, which ultimately defaulted in the following years. But the succession of economic shocks and the rise in uncertainties now seem to have a lasting impact on the resilience of the French entrepreneurial fabric.
According to the Banque de France, the number of business failures over twelve rolling months exceeded 71,000 at the start of 2026. INSEE records 6,260 monthly failures in February 2026 and 5,939 in January 2026, confirming the persistence of a high rate.
