Business failures in France remained at a high level in August, with more than 70,000 procedures recorded on a twelve-month cumulative basis, according to the Bank of France. The number of failures, which include restructurings and judicial liquidations, rose to 70,766 in August, an increase of 4.8% compared to August 2025, and followed a similar increase of 4.8% compared to July 2025. This represents a 19.3% increase compared to the period 2010-2019. The Bank of France noted that the high level of business failures is attributed to deteriorated economic conditions and successive shocks and uncertainties that have weakened the financial situation of some companies. It stated that the explanation for the increase in business failures, previously attributed to a "catch-up" after the Covid-19 pandemic, has not been mentioned recently. Despite the high number of failures, the business population continues to grow, with more than 1.2 million businesses created by the end of August 2026 on a twelve-month rolling basis, an increase of 11.4% compared to the twelve-month total by the end of August 2025. Stability is visible in most sectors of activity and company sizes, according to the Bank of France. A failure is defined as the opening of a collective procedure leading to the filing of a notice of cessation of payments, which refers to restructurings and judicial liquidations. These procedures are legal steps taken when a company is unable to meet its financial obligations and may result in the company being restructured or liquidated.