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50.6% of Spanish business owners say they have experienced at least one default in the past 12 months, according to the survey conducted for the thirteenth edition of the “Business payment behaviour analysis”, a major study on the payment situation in businesses published by INFORMA. This percentage continues a downward trend, by nearly 1 pp over the past year and by more than 13 pp compared with the 64% reached in 2023. Although it remains above 2021, the year in which it stood at 43%.
In 92% of cases, the amount of these unpaid invoices does not reach 5% of companies’ revenue, a figure above the 87% in last year’s survey.
The main cause cited by companies for these delays has changed. While in 2025, for 36%, it was financial problems, this year they fall to second place at 31%, overtaken by administrative problems, at 34%. For nearly 23%, the main cause of these delays is intentional late payment, and for just over 12% they are delays related to commercial problems.
Nathalie Gianese, Director of Research at Informa D&B, states: “The average delay for Spanish businesses ended 2025 at 13.97 days, the lowest figure since 2019”.
Spain’s average payment delay had always exceeded the European figure until 2016, before matching it again in 2018 and remaining above it since then. At year-end 2025, this gap stood at 1.69 days higher for Spain. The European average stands at 12.28 days over this period.
The percentage of business owners applying late payment interest remains low, although it rose from 12.26% last year to 13.65%. Among the measures to help shorten payment terms, the introduction of a penalty regime moved into first place, at 24%, followed by rewarding good payers, which rose from 13% in the previous edition to 21%. Next come proposals such as publishing poor payers at 13% (it led last year at 19%), requiring companies to publish their actual payment terms, at 9%, and more loans and better support, at 9% and 8.5% respectively.
Other solutions mentioned, albeit with less support, include training business owners in receivables management, mediation services and sectoral codes of conduct.
The results of the analysis show an increase in on-time payments over the past year, nearing 46% at year-end 2025, compared with just over 44% in Q4 2024. Payments made more than 60 days late, meanwhile, fell by nearly 1 pp to 5.35%.
55% of companies ended 2025 with a high or medium-high risk of paying more than 90 days late. It should be noted that 54% of companies that experienced at least one default in 2025 had already recorded delays of more than 30 days in 2024, and 71% of these exceeded 90 days late.
Spain maintains a north-south divide in business payment behaviour, with a gap of 16.63 days in the average delay between the region that pays best, Navarre, at 9.37 days late, and the worst, Melilla, at 26. The average delay fell in most regions over this period, with the exception of the Balearic Islands.
Seven regions paid more than 50% of their invoices on time at year-end: Ceuta (57.63%), Asturias (53.27%), Castile and León (53.25%), Basque Country (53.07%), Navarre (51.11%), Cantabria (50.69%) and the Valencian Community (50.21%). By contrast, the lowest on-time payment rates were recorded in Madrid, with 42.71% compliance, the Balearic Islands, with 42.61%, and the Canary Islands, where it stood at 28.86%.
Hospitality is the sector with the highest average delay in payments, at 23.54 days, and the only one to rise year over year, by 2.40 days. Next is Public Administration, with 23.11 days late, followed by Agriculture, at 19.48. Below the average are Manufacturing, at 10.15 days, Trade, at 12.41 days, Extractive Industries, at 12.51 days, Communications, at 12.80 days, and Construction and Real Estate Activities, at 13.48 days. The most significant declines over the past year were in Public Administration, Other services and Transport, which fell by 5.67, 3.35 and 2.84 days, respectively.
In December 2025, micro and small businesses paid more punctually than medium-sized businesses and large corporations, with 51% and 48% for the former versus 30% and 14% for the latter. Compared with the previous year, the average delay period fell across all sizes, with the most notable drop among micro-enterprises, down 2.18 days to 16.30 days, the highest figure. The delay for large corporations was 14.12 days, for medium-sized businesses 12.57, and small businesses were the quickest on average, at 11.70 days.
