Europe’s 22 million SMEs provide 67% of all EU jobs and generate 58% of total EU value added, yet they still often face greater difficulty in accessing the finance they need than their larger competitors. The European Economy journal has brought together financial experts to debate how to address this problem in its latest issue: “Who takes the risks for funding SMEs?”

SMEs in general suffer from market failures that obstruct their access to finance. The real creditworthiness of SMEs may often be underestimated, for example, because of an “information gap” between lender and borrower, low transparency, etc. On top of the more structural issue, SMEs have also been severely affected by the economic crisis. They face weak demand and heightened uncertainty, in some cases aggravated by structural undercapitalisation, at a time when the lending and risk-taking capacity of banks, their main source of external finance, has deteriorated.