According to the Survey on the Access to Finance of Enterprises in the Euro Area (SAFE), between 2023 and 2025 Spanish SMEs perceived an improvement in the availability of bank credit, in contrast to the situation in the euro area, where companies experienced a slight deterioration during the same period. However, the latest available data, corresponding to the fourth quarter of 2025, indicates that this improvement has been taking place at an increasingly slower pace. The SAFE also reports that, in the last two years, there has been a decrease in the loan rejection rate, dropping from 6.8% in 2023 to 3.6% in the fourth quarter of 2025. Credit demand, measured by loan applications, remained weak in both 2024 and 2025.
The increase of the ECB’s key interest rates raised the cost of new financing for non-financial corporations (NFCs), including SMEs1, between 2022 and 2023, although these cost increases tapered off in the second half of the latter year. In addition, the normalisation of ECB’s monetary policy that started in June 2024 led to a gradual decline in the interest rates on loans to SMEs. As a result, new lending to SMEs2 increased by 11.6% between 2022 and 2023 and by 16.1% between 2023 and 2024.
By contrast, mainly due to large repayments, outstanding SME loans (excluding credit to sole proprietorships) decreased by 8.8% between 2022 and 2023 and by 1.9% between 2023 and 2024, reaching EUR 204 billion in the latter year. Total outstanding business loans declined by 4.7% between 2022 and 2023 but increased slightly by 0.4% in 2024, amounting to EUR 450 billion in the latter year. As a result, SME loans accounted for 45.3% of total loans to non-financial corporations (NFCs) in 2024, 1.1 percentage points (pp.) less than in the previous year and 3.2 pp. less than in 2022.
The share of non-performing loans (NPLs) for productive activity (which includes loans to individual entrepreneurs) kept decreasing and stood at 3.9% at the end of 2024, 0.21 pp. lower than in December 2023, and 0.36 pp. lower than in 2022. This decline, which was maintained throughout 2025, is mainly explained by a fall in NPLs (the numerator).
The economic policy measures have been important in maintaining the repayment capacity of companies in a context of rising interest rates and global economic uncertainty. The credit guarantee programme “Response plan to Russia's war in Ukraine”, endowed with a maximum amount of EUR 10 billion, of which EUR 9 billion are directly managed by ICO3, has enabled banks to grant credit under advantageous conditions to companies (mainly SMEs) and self-employed, thereby reducing impairments. The Spanish government also approved the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan to receive the financial aid from the EU’s Mechanism for the Recovery and Resilience4, with a total financial envelope of EUR 163 billion (EUR 79 billion in direct grants and EUR 84 billion in loans) for the period 2021-2026. The plan, which has a detailed agenda of investment projects and reforms, hinges upon four pillars: green transition, digital transformation, social and territorial cohesion, and gender equality. Finally, in response to the tariff measures announced by the US Administration on 2 April 2025, on 8 April the Spanish Government rolled out the Trade Response and Relaunch Plan. With funds close to 0.9% of GDP, the plan has been designed to provide financing to firms that are more exposed or vulnerable to the US tariff hikes. Specifically, it provides a credit guarantee facility through the ICO to boost the activity of firms hit by the tariffs and extends the coverage offered by the Spanish official export credit company (Compañía Española de Seguros de Crédito a la Exportación, CESCE) for export risks. The plan also redirects some pre-existing instruments (mainly loans associated with the Recovery and Resilience Facility) to provide financial support to those firms.
Regarding non-bank funding, the volume of venture capital investment in Spanish SMEs amounted to EUR 6.0 billion in 2024, which represented an 8.89% decline relative to the level reported in 2023 (EUR 6.6 billion), but was still well above the levels in 2022 (EUR 5 billion).