Over €3 billion in funds were available to businesses through invoice finance at the end of Q1 2026, according to new figures from Banking and Payments Federation Ireland.
Invoice finance helps businesses to unlock cash that is tied up in unpaid customer invoices.
Companies can borrow money or get a cash advance using their unpaid customer invoices as security to receive up to 90% of the invoice value from a lender.
This can help bridge gaps in day to day cash-flow for SME’s and larger businesses.
The amount of funds advanced to companies in the first quarter of year fell by 1.4% year on year to over €1.3 billion.
This is despite total funds available rose by 1.9% to over €3 billion in the same period.
The data shows that average funds advanced per client business reached almost €1m by the end-March this year.
Commenting on today’s figures, Brian Hayes, Chief Executive, BPFI said: “The latest figures show that invoice finance continues to provide important working capital support to Irish businesses across a wide range of sectors, including manufacturing, agriculture, transport and logistics, services and recruitment.
Mr Hayes added: “As the sales ledger is used to secure access to funds, growth in client sales can help support greater availability of finance.
“The figures underline the practical role invoice finance can play for businesses managing the timing gap between issuing invoices and receiving payment.
“Firms with strong sales that want to expand or enhance their working capital , it can provide flexible funding that moves in line with their customer invoices.”
