As before, there was only a slight quarter-on-quarter change in firms’ expectations over the next 12 months. 73 % of firms also expected that their access to financing sources would remain unchanged in future, which corresponded to an increase of 2 percentage points compared with the first quarter of 2025. The share of firms expecting a deterioration in their access to financing sources decreased by 2 percentage points. A decline in short-term liquidity was expected by 26 % of firms, while 18 % expected it to increase (previous quarter: 31 % and 17 %, respectively).

In addition to the regularly recurring questions on enterprise metrics, expectations and access to loans, the Bundesbank frequently asks enterprises questions on various current issues. A selection of the results is presented here.

In the second quarter of 2025, only marginally more firms than in the first quarter of the year reported that they had conducted loan negotiations in the respective preceding quarter (Q2 2025: 15.4 %; Q1 2025: 14.8 %). 

In 2024, the number of payments made using cards issued by German payment service providers rose by 11 percent on the year. This resulted in around 13 billion transactions last year.