Bank disintermediation

Bank disintermediation refers to the decline in the share of bank lending in corporate financing in favour of market financing and non-bank lenders: bonds, Euro PPs, negotiable debt securities and debt funds. According to the Banque de France, outstanding financing of French non-financial corporations reached €2,196.2bn at the end of August 2026. It consisted of €1,437.1bn of bank loans, up 3.8% year on year, and €759.1bn of market financing, up 4.4%. In August 2026, the average cost of new market financing (3.87%) exceeded that of new bank loans (3.66%). Private debt extends this shift to unlisted companies. Private debt funds invested €14,849m in 342 corporate debt transactions in France in 2025, according to France Invest and Deloitte, and French corporate debt funds raised €11.4bn the same year. In the United States, BlackRock estimates the share of non-bank lenders in the leveraged loan market at 86% in 2025, compared with 28% in 1994. For a mid-cap company, disintermediation translates into a choice of structure. It keeps a bank pool for the revolving facility and cash management services, and places its term debt with debt funds or Euro PP investors. This choice changes the cost, the term, the repayment profile and the number of counterparties to consult for a waiver.

A mid-cap company whose €180m of debt rests on a pool of five banks replaces €100m of amortising loans with a debt fund unitranche and issues €40m of Euro PP to insurers. It keeps €40m of bank debt, including a revolving facility. The bank share of its borrowing falls from 100% to about 22%.

• The target split between bank lending, private debt and market financing
• The all-in cost of each source, including fees
• The compatibility of security and covenants between bank and non-bank lenders
• Keeping a banking relationship for payment flows, cash management and the revolving facility