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Online Workshop BUILDING BRIDGES BETWEEN FINANCE AND SMES

“SMES’ ACCESS TO FINANCE: A NEW “FINANCING MIX” TO BE SET UP WITHIN THE EU”

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The 2020 ECB lending survey showed that the demands for loans or drawing of credit lines from firms have surged during the second quarter 2020 and reached the highest net balance since the survey was launched in 2003. The COVID-19 outbreak has highlighted an existing problem faced by European SMEs: the need for larger and more diversified funding opportunities.

As economic reality and funding access are different among EU Member States, this online workshop will gather SMEs from all the EU. They will testify and discuss their day to day funding issues and needs in front of representatives from the European Parliament, the European Commission and the financial industry. EU representatives will develop the ongoing European initiatives to bring closer SMEs and financial players, such as the Capital Markets Union.

By providing € 275 billion of working capital financing to 280,000 businesses (of which 87% are SMEs) in 2019, factoring can symbolize the bridgehead of a “finance serving the economy”. In direct link with the day-to-day business, factoring has become a key financing tool for SMEs, and was described in the 2020 European Commission’s study “as an effective solution to combat cash flow issues and improve working capital, also in the context of a credit crunch and persistent late payment” and in the 2018 European Parliament INI report as an “innovative type of payment” and a means to avoid SMEs bankruptcy due to late payment.

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