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The promotion of a more stable European banking system has become a priority which, not doubt, will bring important benefits to firms. However, bank stability comes with stronger regulations that could harm the access to finance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are highly dependent on bank financing. We provide new evidence on the association between the stability of a country’s banking system and SMEs access to finance through the study of borrower discouragement. We analyze 20,207 observations gathered among 16,382 firms operating in the EU-28 during the period 2011–2018. Applying multilevel methodology, our results show that SMEs operating in countries with more stable banking systems are less likely to be discouraged from applying for a loan. Working to achieve a more stable banking system does not seem to harm the access to finance of SMEs.

In light of an economic recession at a global scale, we should turn our attention toward sources of funding which, as leasing, present clear advantages to the more vulnerable small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Applying logistic models on a sample of 4,425 SMEs from 25 European countries, we show that financial constraints and the characteristics of the institutional environment might play a distinctive role in the use of leasing for SMEs across developing and developed countries. Consequently, leasing regulations should be carefully studied to trigger rather than sink the feasibility with which leasing might be deployed and used.

The growing activity of foreign banks in most European countries may increase financing constraints by intensifying the problem of borrower discouragement. We provide new evidence of this association by analysing a sample of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in 25 developed and developing European countries. We find that financing constraints increase with foreign banks for those SMEs operating in countries where the share of banking assets owned by foreign banks is above 34%. Our results also show that borrower discouragement may decrease, or increase less, with the presence of foreign banks for SMEs operating in countries with high income, with cheap debt enforcement mechanisms, or having a private bureau that provides credit information about firms and individuals. These results suggest that unification towards better institutions needs to occur in Europe before the banking union progresses to a more open banking system.

The growing activity of foreign banks in most European countries may increase financing constraints by intensifying the problem of borrower discouragement. We provide new evidence of this association by analysing a sample of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in 25 developed and developing European countries. We find that financing constraints increase with foreign banks for those SMEs operating in countries where the share of banking assets owned by foreign banks is above 34%. Our results also show that borrower discouragement may decrease, or increase less, with the presence of foreign banks for SMEs operating in countries with high income, with cheap debt enforcement mechanisms, or having a private bureau that provides credit information about firms and individuals. These results suggest that unification towards better institutions needs to occur in Europe before the banking union progresses to a more open banking system.

Severe informational asymmetries, small size, unreliable financial statements and lack of collateral hamper the access of SMEs to traditional sources of debt financing. We use a survey data set of 4,583 SMEs from 25 European countries to analyse whether the use of leasing as a form of financing could fill the financing gap of constrained SMEs. We do so analysing whether the use of leasing by SMEs is triggered by the existence of financial constraints. Our findings indicate that after controlling for firm, bank and country-specific characteristics the likelihood of using leasing increases for financially constrained SMEs, which confirms our hypothesis. This paper contributes to the debate about differences in the use of lease financing between constrained and unconstrained SMEs, providing to the best of our knowledge, the first international evidence using a survey assessment of self-declared financial constraints for SMEs.

This paper analyzes the effect of bank market power on the financial constraints of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through the study of borrower discouragement. We use a cross-country sample of 2582 firms in 25 developed and developing European countries. Our results show that the intensity of borrower discouragement decreases with the level of bank market power, and this result is robust to the use of concentration and industrial organization measures of competition. When our model allows for non-monotonic effects, we show that more bank market power might increase borrower discouragement for firms operating in less developed economies and in countries with a high degree of bank market power. These results explain the conflicting evidence provided in previous literature concerning countries with different levels of economic development and bank market power. Our paper sets limits to the continuous concentration process in the European banking market, which may result in more discouraged and financially restricted SMEs.

Weak protection of the rights of financiers intensifies agency problems in SME financing, inhibiting the optimal provision of credit necessary to grow and innovate. We use a survey data set of 4,348 SMEs from 25 European countries to analyze whether the use of factoring as a form of SME financing is less dependent on low quality of laws and institutions. We do so analyzing whether the use of factoring by SMEs differs across countries due to differences in the legal protection of creditors. Our findings indicate that firms operating in countries with legal environments that weakly protect the rights of creditors, with political instability or high enforcement costs, are more likely to use factoring. Managers of riskier and opaque companies operating in such inefficient environments can use the results of this study to better understand that there are suitable options to complement bank financing. Managers who seek loans can use the results to diversify their financing structure through the use of factoring. Since factoring can be used as a complement to bank loans or as a substitute for bank financing, it is important that policy makers take our results into account when revising policies concerning access to external financing.