Banks must back the real economy and facilitate SMEs' access to finance

02 May 2013
by EBC -- last modified 02 May 2013

The European Builders Confederation EBC took the occasion of the SMEs Finance Forum held today in Dublin to alert and raise the issue of access to finance for construction small and medium enterprises in front of the European Institutions, the Irish Presidency of the European Council and other SMEs representatives.

EBC Secretary General Riccardo Viaggi, participating in the meeting along with UEAPME, stated: "The latest European Central Bank survey on the access to finance of SMEs in the Euro area shows the difficult financial situation and unfair lending conditions for SMEs in the Euro zone. Indeed, this situation stems from insufficient internal funds due to the lack in consumption and the deterioration of the overall economic conditions. All euro area countries, except Germany, report a decline in availability of external financing such as bank overdrafts and trade credit. I believe it is also unfair since SMEs are oppressed by collateral requirements and pay higher interests rates than larger companies".  

 

Even if certain countries are showing gradual  signs of improvement or slower decline, the survey demonstrates that SMEs needs for bank overdrafts and loans depend on the insufficient availability of internal funds and on  the economic crisis. These needs cannot be satisfied by the financial system due to the deterioration in the accessibility of bank loans.  

 

He continued: "EBC believes that the instruments deployed at the European level are very useful but not sufficient to face the situation. And recent pieces of news are only worsening that sentiment: within the next European multi-annual budget, the programme for the competitiveness of SMEs 'COSME' is likely to be cut from the initial € 2.5 billon proposal to a more modest € 2 billion over 7 years."

 

Riccardo Viaggi concluded: "It is of primary importance that banks come back to finance the real economy and even more small and medium enterprises activities, which are severely stricken by this bottleneck. The European Institutions and the Member States should pursue the improvement of traditional credit lines and simple bank lending because 92% of European Construction enterprises, which have less than 10 employees, employ this only way to invest in their productivity."

Established in 1990, the European Builders Confederation - E.B.C. - is a European professional organisation representing national associations of Craftsmen and SMEs working in the construction sector. Through its national members, E.B.C. represents 2 million micro, small and medium sized enterprises from the construction sector.

European Builders Confederation (EBC)