Greece’s bank lending is becoming increasingly concentrated among the country’s largest companies, reflecting a broader shift in an economy where investment, acquisitions and consolidation are giving bigger corporate groups greater weight.
Just 701 large companies, or 1.2% of Greek businesses with bank loans, accounted for 42.9% of outstanding corporate credit in June 2026, according to Bank of Greece data from its AnaCredit database. Their share was 31.8% at the end of 2019.
The number of large companies receiving bank financing rose 25.4% between December 2019 and June 2026, to 701 from 559. Their outstanding borrowing climbed much faster, increasing 68.4% to €36 billion ($42.6 billion) from €21.4 billion.
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Medium-size companies have also expanded their use of bank credit. Their number rose 21.4% to 3,214, while outstanding loans increased 35% to €18.1 billion. Together, large and medium-size companies represent only 6.6% of Greek businesses with bank borrowing but account for 64.5% of outstanding corporate loans, up from 51.8% in 2019.
The shift coincides with Greece’s postpandemic investment cycle. Major projects in energy, infrastructure, tourism, logistics and digital networks, alongside acquisitions, typically require substantially larger loans than investments undertaken by small businesses.
Bankers say the trend also reflects corporate consolidation. Companies with access to greater amounts of capital can invest, acquire competitors and expand market share, creating additional demand for financing.
Smaller companies haven’t disappeared from banks’ loan books, but their position has weakened. Some 55,296 small and microbusinesses had bank financing at the end of June, with €29.7 billion of outstanding debt, or 35.4% of the total. Their number was 4.2% lower than in 2019, while their borrowing fell 8.3%.
That decline occurred even as AnaCredit lowered its reporting threshold to €5,000 from €20,000 in December 2023, which would otherwise tend to increase the number of smaller loans captured in the database.
Greece’s European Union-backed Recovery and Resilience Facility has reinforced the trend. Of 870 loan agreements signed through the program, 527, or 60.6%, involved small and medium-size enterprises. Yet those projects represented only €5.9 billion, or 20%, of the €29.44 billion in investments mobilized through the facility’s loan component. The remaining 343 agreements accounted for €23.54 billion, or 80%.
Banks also have financial incentives to favor larger borrowers. Assessing and monitoring a loan carries significant fixed costs, making a €20 million or €50 million facility to a large corporate group more economical to administer than distributing the same amount among hundreds of microbusinesses.
The legacy of Greece’s debt crisis matters, too. Small businesses were heavily represented in the country’s stock of nonperforming loans, encouraging lenders to apply stricter risk standards. Larger companies typically offer audited accounts, more collateral and diversified revenue streams.
