The SME financing gap

the long version

The lack of funding available from the financial sector for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is known as the financing gap. This report analyzes this gap for both credit and equity financing and seeks to determine how prevalent such a gap may be, both among OECD countries and non-OECD economies, and recommends measures to foster an improved flow of financing to SMEs and entrepreneurs. A significant number of entrepreneurs and SMEs could use funds productively if they were available, but are often denied access to financing. This impedes their creation and growth. The "financing gap" was the subject of the OECD Global Conference on "Better Financing for Entrepreneurship and SME Growth", held in Brasilia, Brazil in March 2006. Vol. 2 presents a synthesis of the Conference discussions on the credit and equity financing gaps, as well as on private equity definitions and measurements. It also offers a selection of papers given by some of the key stakeholders (SMEs, government and financial institutions) confronting these issues.--Publisher's description.