The short answer
Factoring means you sell your B2B invoices to a factoring company, which pays you most of their value straight away and collects the money from your customer. Belgian bank-owned factors publish advances of 75% to 90% of the invoice amount; you get the rest, minus costs, when your customer pays. You pay two things: a factoring fee on the invoices you assign and interest on the money advanced. Without recourse, the factor carries the risk that your customer goes insolvent, within a limit it approves per customer; with recourse, unpaid invoices come back to you. Notified factoring tells your customers to pay the factor; confidential factoring does not. Where bank factors publish a minimum turnover, the lowest is 500,000 euros a year.
Advance rates, minimum turnovers and cost structures come from the factors' own pages, the legal rules from Book 5 of the Civil Code on Justel and the Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 specification, all read on 1 October 2026. General information, not legal or financial advice.
How factoring works
Contract. You sign an agreement, usually for your whole debtor portfolio. The factor checks your customers and sets a limit for each.
Assignment. You invoice as usual and pass the invoice data to the factor.
Advance. The factor pays you a percentage of the invoice amount within days.
Collection. The factor, or you in a confidential set-up, follows up until payment.
Settlement. When the customer pays, the factor releases the balance, minus fee and interest.
An illustrative example: you invoice a customer 12,100 euros including VAT on 45-day terms and assign the invoice. At an 85% advance, you receive 10,285 euros. The customer pays the factor on day 50. The factor then releases the remaining 1,815 euros, minus its fee on the invoice and interest on 10,285 euros for 50 days. Both rates are in your contract, not on the factors' websites.
With or without recourse
Belgian law sets the default. Whoever sells a claim guarantees that it exists (article 5.185 of the Civil Code), but not that the debtor can pay, unless it agreed to, and then only up to the price received (article 5.186). Factoring contracts build on this.
Without recourse. The factor carries your customer's insolvency, within the limit it approved for that customer. KBC Commercial Finance describes 100% cover of invoices within the approved limits, paid at the latest 100 days after the due date; Belfius Commercial Finance says its cover can reach 100% of the risk.
With recourse. The factor finances, but if the customer does not pay, you repay the advance and the invoice is yours again. What to do about an unpaid invoice in Belgium covers the route from there.
Disputes stay with you. The cover protects against insolvency, not against a customer who withholds payment over a complaint or a return.
The choice also shows in your accounts. According to advice 2011/23 of the Belgian Accounting Standards Commission (CBN), receivables leave your balance sheet to the extent that the factor has paid the advances and carries the insolvency risk. With recourse, the responsibility you keep for your customers' payments still shows in your annual accounts. The factoring fee is booked as a service cost (account 61), the interest as a discount cost on receivables (account 653).
Notified or confidential
Between you and the factor, the assignment takes effect when the contract is signed. Against your customer, it only counts from the moment the customer is notified or acknowledges it (article 5.179). Either you or the factor can notify, and the notice only has to say that the invoice was assigned (article 5.180). A customer that pays you in good faith before it is notified is discharged (article 5.181).
Notified factoring. Your customer pays the factor. Once notified, the customer can no longer set off claims against you that arise later, unless they are connected to the invoice (article 5.182).
Confidential factoring. Customers are not told, keep paying you, and you pass the money on.
Check your large customers' purchasing terms for a clause that bans assignment. Under article 5.174, an assignment in breach of such a clause cannot be invoked against the customer when the factor knowingly took part in the breach, so factors will ask.
Full-service or financing only
Formula | Advance | Who collects | Insolvency cover | Customer told |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Full-service factoring | Yes | Factor | Optional (without recourse) | Yes |
Financing only (invoice discounting) | Yes | You | Usually not | Usually not |
Receivables management | Only if you ask | Factor | Optional | Yes |
All-in package for small companies | Yes | Factor | Included | Yes |
Full-service is worth most to a company without a credit manager. Financing only suits a company that already runs a working credit management process.
Who offers factoring in Belgium
The four large banks each run a factoring arm. What they publish:
Factor | Advance | Minimum annual turnover | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
BNP Paribas Fortis Factor | Up to 85% | 500,000 euros | Calls itself the Belgian market leader. Easy2Cash, for B2B companies under 3 million euros turnover, bundles financing, credit insurance and follow-up for one rate. |
KBC Commercial Finance | 75% to 85% | Not published | Optional insolvency cover, 100% within approved limits. |
Belfius Commercial Finance | 75% to 90% (Belfius site), 75% to 85% (BCF site) | 3 million euros; 500,000 euros for B2G Flex | 100% subsidiary of Belfius. B2G Flex finances public contracts of at least 100,000 euros. |
ING Commercial Finance | Not published on the current page | Not published on the current page | Invoice and inventory financing. |
Independent and online factors also operate in Belgium; the table lists only the bank-owned ones whose terms we read. There is no separate Belgian factoring federation: Febelfin, the financial sector federation, took in factoring companies as members in 2025 and represents Belgium in the EU Federation for Factoring and Commercial Finance.
What factoring costs
None of the four bank factors publishes rates. The cost is built from these parts:
Factoring fee. A percentage of the invoices you assign. BNP Paribas Fortis Factor sets it by the service package, your turnover, your average invoice value and your number of debtors.
Interest. Charged on the amount actually advanced, for the days until your customer pays, so slow payers cost more.
Insolvency cover. Without recourse, the factor prices in the risk it takes on your customers.
All-in rate. Easy2Cash charges one percentage of the invoice amount, set by the amount financed and the average payment term, with no start-up costs.
Ask for a quote on your own volume that splits these parts, and compare the total cost per invoice. Factoring shortens the receivables side of your working capital, but you pay for every day your customer takes.
Factoring and Peppol
Since 1 January 2026, invoices between Belgian VAT-registered businesses must be structured electronic invoices, which in practice travel over Peppol (Peppol in Belgium explained). The Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 specification has fields made for factoring: invoice type code 393, "factored invoice", and 396 for a factored credit note; a payee party that names the factor when it is not the seller; and an invoice note stating that the invoice has been assigned. So the notification can travel with the invoice. FPS Finance's e-invoicing FAQ does not cover factoring; check that your factor and your invoicing software both handle the payee field.
Check your customers before you sell their invoices
A factor finances your customers' credit and will cap or refuse the weak ones. Check them first: active in the KBO, accounts filed on time, equity positive and stable? How to look up Belgian annual accounts shows where to find them for free. In Bizzy, each Belgian customer record shows its legal status from the KBO, up to four years of filed financials from the National Bank, including equity, cash and working capital, and its Official Gazette publications by type, so you can sort a debtor list before you ask for a quote.
Alternatives to factoring
Credit insurance. Covers part of your loss when an insured customer cannot pay, but advances no cash. Credit insurance in Belgium explains how policies and limits work.
Invoice discounting. The financing-only formula above: cash against receivables while you keep collection.
Shorter terms or advance invoices. The cheapest cash is the cash your customer pays sooner.
Frequently asked questions
What is factoring? Selling your B2B invoices to a factoring company, which advances most of their value at once and pays the balance, minus costs, when your customer pays.
How much does factoring cost in Belgium? The bank factors do not publish rates. You pay a fee on the invoices you assign, interest on the amount advanced and, without recourse, the insolvency cover.
What is the difference between factoring with and without recourse? With recourse, an unpaid invoice comes back to you. Without recourse, the factor carries your customer's insolvency within the approved limit. Disputes stay with you either way.
Do my customers know I use factoring? With notified factoring, yes: the invoice tells them to pay the factor. With confidential factoring, no: they keep paying you.
Photo: the castle of the Dukes of Brabant in Turnhout, Paul Hermans, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons