In 2022, about 24.3 million SMEs were active in the EU-27 providing more than half of the economy value added and more than 65% of the employment (84.9 million people).
Their common challenges are related to the idiosicracy of the EU framework setup (that includes common regulation, Banking Union, ECB, ESMA and same competition practice).
Focusing on solving problems of SME long term funding within this established framework may inspire other non EU, European countries and the rest of the adjacent world.
 

The objective of the working group is to create a network of high level experts and practitioners who are committed to share knowledge and experiences to solve the problems that European 

SMEs face in accessing long term finance.

 

Outcomes and lessons learned from this working group are expected to be relevant, useful and replicable to other regions.

This network is intended to have a multi-year collaborative agenda with bi-annual meetings and concrete outcomes, to be jointly determined by members of the network.

Meeting of the working group are governed by Chatham house rules. Every participant may express their personal opinion which does not necessarily represent the views of their institutions.
 

All participants shall represent all key stakeholders especially SME financiers and regulatory agencies. They shall have diverse relevant backgrounds and have knowledge related to the topics 

of the discussions. Members of the network are expected to: identify innovative solutions to the problems, and jointly define a collaborative agenda for the next steps.

 

This meeting is by invitation only. If interested, please reach out to smefinanceforum@ifc.org

 

The initiative is jointly promoted by SME Finance Forum and Inbonis Rating.

 

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