The Business Services sector pays one day later than the national average

Payment delays among companies in the Business Services sector reached 15.25 days in Q2 2026, according to the Business Payment Behaviour Study for companies in the Business Services sector carried out by INFORMA.

Nathalie Gianese, Director of Research at Informa D&B, states: “The Business Services sector has significantly reduced its average payment delay in recent years, following a similar trend to the national average, although always above it, by nearly one day in Q2 2026”.

The gap between the sector and the national average reached its minimum in Q3 2011, at 0.48 days, while the maximum, 2.99 days, was recorded in Q2 2016.

On-time payments among companies engaged in business services stood at 42.38% in Q2, a weaker performance than the overall 43.26%. Payments more than 90 days late in the sector accounted for 3.95%, versus 3.89% overall.

By company size, micro-enterprises posted the highest delay in Q2, at 16.07 days, 2.34 days more than small businesses, which performed best with a 13.73-day delay. For large corporations, it stood at 15.87 days, while medium-sized businesses extended their payments by 15.81 days. In all cases, delays were above the overall average, except for micro-enterprises, which came in 0.74 days below.

The gap between the regions with the highest and lowest delays in the sector is 42.41 days. The lowest delay was recorded in Navarre, at 9.09 days, followed by Cantabria at 10.66 days, and the Basque Country at 11.11 days. At the other end of the scale, Melilla is the region where Business Services companies extend payments the most beyond agreed terms, at 51.50 days, ahead of the Canary Islands at 24.43 days, Ceuta at 21.50 days, and the Balearic Islands at 20.87 days. Between April and June, the sector’s average payment delay was below the overall average in only four regions (Navarre, Cantabria, Madrid and the Balearic Islands), with the largest negative gaps in Melilla, Ceuta and La Rioja, at 25.25, 8.33 and 4.76 days respectively.

In Europe, the most notable delays among Business Services companies are found in Portugal, at 24.45 days, while the lowest delays correspond to the Netherlands, at 2.49 days, and Belgium, at 9.56 days. Of the eight countries analysed, the sector’s average payment delay is above the national average in five: Portugal (1.11 days), Ireland (1.56 days), France (2.68 days), Spain (0.89 days) and the United Kingdom (1.63 days), while in Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands it is 1.36, 0.68 and 0.38 days below, respectively.

INFORMA’s database contains 201,673 active companies in the Business Services sector, representing 14.75% of the total Spanish business fabric.