Non-notification factoring

Affacturage confidentiel, which the industry’s statistics call non-notified factoring (affacturage non notifié), is the form of factoring in which the company’s customers receive no notice of the assignment of the receivables. Notification is the information given to the debtor that a factoring contract exists between the assignor and the factor. Without it, the customer continues to pay the company, which passes the collections on to the factor. The customers do not know that their invoices are financed. The company keeps responsibility for reminders and collection on its receivables ledger, which brings this arrangement close to factoring under delegated management. Delegated management accounts for 76% of French domestic production, or €206bn in 2025. In the same year, non-notified factoring reached €188.9bn of invoices, up 1.1%. The share of notified contracts fell to 30% of domestic production. Mid-caps held 50.5% of factors’ outstandings at 31 December 2025. Large companies, which account for 16% of the portfolio, originate the very large transactions. The factoring fee is set as a percentage of the receivables assigned and varies with the type of contract: standard, light, undisclosed or export. Sending the notification letter to buyers incurs specific fees.

An automotive supplier invoices €280m a year to fifteen carmakers and subcontractors. It signs a non-notified factoring contract under delegated management. Each week, it sends the factor the file of its new invoices and receives the corresponding financing. It continues to collect its customers’ payments and passes them on to the factor. Its customers receive no notification letter.

• Check the cases in which the factor may notify your customers of the assignment and the notice period provided.
• Review the anti-assignment clauses in your customer contracts.
• Compare the fee for the undisclosed contract with that of a notified contract.
• Organise the transfer of collections to the factor and the reporting it requires.