After the pandemic lull, which put a brake on seemingly unstoppable growth, the factoring sector has returned to the vigorous growth path it had been on until 2020.
The volume of credit managed through this type of financing grew by 11.09% during the first half of 2021 in Spain, reaching 46,885 million euros, according to data from the Spanish Factoring Association (AEF).
This increase has occurred differently if we compare it with the more specific sector of international factoring, which has broken growth records with an increase of 29.36% (13,081 million euros) in Spain. Domestic factoring, although growing less (5.33%), reached a total volume of 33,804 million euros.
Factoring balance sheet in Europe in 2020
In 2020, the general fall suffered by factoring as a result of the pandemic crisis was not as marked in Spain as in Europe as a whole, with a decline that, unlike in other neighbouring countries, was less than the fall in GDP in our country.
Thus, data collated by the European Union Fund (EUF) show a 5.4% year-on-year decline in factoring turnover in EU countries as a whole (EUR 1.78 trillion compared with EUR 1.91 trillion in 2019), a decline in line with that of GDP in these countries (-6.4%).
In Spain, on the other hand, the volume of factoring credit assignments fell by 7.67% to 88,724 million (of which 21,796 million corresponded to international factoring and 66,928 million to national factoring), a fall well below that of GDP, which was 10.8%.
According to the interpretation of the president of the Spanish Factoring Association of these data, the fact that the percentage drop in factoring and confirming has been significantly lower than that recorded by the GDP as a whole "indicates that our activity has been and continues to be the most appreciated and significant formula for the management, financing and risk coverage of companies in the Spanish financial panorama. At the time of writing, the growth in the total volume of loans managed is proof of this".
According to data from Factoring Chain International (FCI), Spain ended 2020 as one of the leading countries in terms of factoring turnover in Europe, ranking fourth after France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy.
