Banks are scrutinizing their customers’ supply chains more closely

Frankfurt For a long time, banks were hardly interested in how companies get their raw materials and intermediate products. The corona pandemic and the Russian sanctions following the Russian invasion of Ukraine have shown how dependent some companies are on individual suppliers. This is having an increasing impact on banks’ lending policies, according to the 2023 credit market study by management consultancy EY, which is available exclusively to Handelsblatt. EY interviewed 120 credit managers from banks and savings banks for the study.

Around 40 percent of the banks surveyed fear that supply chain disruptions will lead to more loan defaults as well as a drop in sales for their corporate customers. 38 percent of financial institutions assume that this will also increase the financing needs of companies.

These risks make institutions more cautious. Almost 80 percent of those surveyed want to take supply chain dependencies into account when making credit decisions in the future – half are already doing so. Another 27 percent are currently implementing such aspects or are planning such a step.