Biannual Survey of Suppliers of Business Financing, second half 2013

Released: 2014-05-08

Debt outstanding

The total credit outstanding held by businesses in Canada increased for the third consecutive year in 2013. The largest borrowers, those with authorization levels of $5 million or more, were mainly responsible for the increase.

Commercial suppliers of financing, including banks, credit unions and caisses populaires, finance companies and insurance companies, reported that their clients owed them approximately $598.9 billion in the second half of 2013, up 2.8% from the first half of 2013.

Outstanding debt among the largest businesses, those with authorization levels of $5 million or more, rose 3.3% to $389.8 billion.

Businesses with authorizations between $1 million and $4.999 million had outstanding credit of $118.3 billion, up 2.4%.

Outstanding debt of borrowers with authorization levels of less than $1 million, generally the smaller companies, rose 1.2% to $90.7 billion.

Banks continued to be the major supplier of debt financing to businesses in Canada. By the end of 2013, their outstanding debt financing amounted to $334 billion, up 3.3% over June 2013. Banks have increased their market share comparatively more than any other category since the first half of 2011, rising from 52.5% to 55.8% of the loans to businesses in Canada.

The "credit unions and caisses populaires" category posted the largest percentage growth of all suppliers in the second half of 2013, with their outstanding debt rising 3.5% to $62.3 billion. This represented 10.4% of the total debt outstanding in the business borrowing market by the end of 2013.

Disbursements

Total disbursements rose 7.4% from the first half of 2013 to $78.4 billion in the second half, a sixth consecutive increase.

Loans of $5 million or more posted the largest period-over-period growth, rising 7.8% to $51.8 billion. They were followed by loans of $1 million to $4.999 million, up 9.9% to $15.0 billion.

Banks were the largest contributor to the total disbursements growth, up 7.3% or $2.2 billion from the first half of 2013 to $36.6 billion. This was followed by other banks (primarily but not exclusively foreign-owned banks), up 14.2% to $17.2 billion. Insurance companies and portfolio managers reported the largest period-over-period growth in total disbursements, up 21.0% to $6.4 billion.

Contact information

For more information, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca).

To enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Robert Fair (613-951-0068; robert.fair@statcan.gc.ca) or Philippe Marceau (613-951-4390; philippe.marceau@statcan.gc.ca), Industrial Organization and Finance Division.