Almost no one is spared. Four out of five companies in Western Europe report that their business customers are paying their invoices late, and the respondents come from eleven markets, across various industries, and from both small and large companies. What may seem like a side effect of difficult times is, in reality, a structural problem that is increasingly eating into their balance sheets.
The 2026 Atradius Payment Practices Barometer surveys companies from eleven Western European markets about their payment behavior in B2B transactions. The picture it paints is alarmingly clear.
Trade Credit as a Silent Transfer of Risk
The mechanism behind this is less complicated than it seems. As access to bank loans becomes more restricted, companies are increasingly turning to trade credit: they buy on account, pay later, and thereby finance themselves at the expense of their suppliers. Currently, 52 percent of all B2B transactions in Western Europe are conducted on credit, and this share is growing. This keeps trade flowing but systematically shifts the risk toward those who provide goods or services in advance.
The reasons for late payments are multifaceted. Fifty-three percent of the companies surveyed cite cash flow problems among their customers as the main cause. This is followed by internal approval delays and banking issues, each at 23 percent—factors that slow down the process even when the willingness to pay is fundamentally present. Another 15 percent cite complex payment processes as the reason for the delays. In other words, late payments are often not due to bad faith, but rather the result of systems that no longer function smoothly under pressure.
Credit Losses: A Silent Drain on Profits
Payments that are late are sometimes never made at all. And this transition from delinquency to default is more fluid than many financial managers are willing to admit. Credit losses in Western European B2B business already average 1.6 percent of invoiced revenue—a figure that seems insignificant at first glance but is significant in practice: For a company with ten million euros in annual revenue, this means 160,000 euros that are not available for investment, reserves, or profit. Nearly one in four companies even reports losses of up to five percent.
The outlook offers little relief. Thirty percent of the companies surveyed expect the insolvency situation to worsen further over the next twelve months. Fifty-five percent expect it to remain at its already elevated level. Confidence is rare, and planning certainty even rarer: Many companies report that they are no longer working with a single scenario but must prepare for multiple scenarios simultaneously.
Prevention Is Better Than Reaction
The companies that handle this situation best have one thing in common: They treat receivables management not as a downstream process, but as an integral part of corporate management. Active credit monitoring, selective credit limits, and early escalation in the event of late payments—these are not crisis measures, but standard tools of resilient financial management. Those who wait to react until a payment default has already occurred have long since borne the risk alone.
This is exactly where coeo comes in. As a technology-driven debt collection agency, coeo doesn’t simply take on outstanding receivables—it does so with the express goal of preserving the creditor’s relationship with the customer. That may sound like a contradiction, but it’s the crucial difference: Professional receivables management that focuses on amicable solutions and uses AI-powered processes can secure liquidity without permanently damaging the relationship with the delinquent customer. In an environment where late payments have become the norm, this is no longer a niche expertise. It’s a competitive advantage.
About the Study: The Atradius Payment Practices Barometer Western Europe 2026 is an annual business survey on B2B payment practices in eleven Western European markets, including Germany, Austria, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The current edition is based on 2,945 interviews with credit management professionals from companies of all sizes and across four industries. The survey was conducted between the end of Q1 and the beginning of Q2 2026. The results are presented as weighted percentages to reflect the economic significance of the respective markets, industries, and company sizes.
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