This Paper Discusses The State Of Business Financing, Particularly Smes And Micro Businesses, On A Per Country Basis. Dissertation Methodologies Examples

BUSINESS FUNDING OPTIONS IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES

Over the course of the past several decades, small- and medium-scale enterprise (SME) finance has grown from being somewhat esoteric offshoot of microfinance to a mainstay of the development profession. This progress has been accompanied by a certain degree of professionalization as well as a certain degree of academic interest, although most of the latter remains focused on microfinance, which, differs in its very nature from SME finance. (Munro)
In forums devoted to discussion of SME finance topics, one finds participants with backgrounds in both developed and developing economies. Even in developed economies, certain sectors depend upon SMEs to provide employment. Often, SME finance programs are promoted by the donor community as panaceas for everything that ails society--a "silver bullet" to create instant job opportunities and economic growth.

Business Financing in UK
Access to financing is now widely acknowledged as a path to meaningful economic inclusion and reduction in financing. After the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, a number of countries resorted to credit guarantee schemes (CSGs) as an instrument of choice for policy makers to improve access to finance by SMEs and start-up firms. This business segment has faced more severe credit conditions in relation to large firms, in the form of increased requests for collateral, shortened maturities and higher interest rate spreads. This suggests that smaller firms were considered to be higher-risk companies by lenders and that the financing gap has become a concern for a greater number of entrepreneurs (OECD, 2013).
Credit guarantee mechanisms are aimed at helping the market from failing by minimizing the losses incurred by the financial institutions facing defaults. In the case of individual assessment of loans, participation in CGS can boost the bond between borrowers and lenders, to the point that it will represent an ex ante positive signal to the back on the credit-worthiness of the firm, thus, leading to the development of a long-term trust-based relationship. CSGs is also helpful in improving the efficiency of local financial markets limiting lenders’ transactions to local firms only or to firms that operate in a narrow set of sectors, CGSs provide a way to spread risk (Bank of England, 2015).
SMEs number 4.5 million in United Kingdom. Interestingly, 74.1 percent of these do not have employees but only an owner or manager. The remaining SMEs have one employee or more; 82. 6 percent of these are small enterprises with less than 10 workers.
Outstanding SME loans grew continuously from 2007 until they peaked in 2009. Since then, they have been in decline ever since and the drop was particularly sharp in the first half of 2011. Lending to large enterprises began to decline earlier than SME lending, and has fallen further from its peak in late 2008, although the expansion in lending before 2008 was larger. Thus, SME share in total business lending has increased since 2007 and is more than one-fifth of the stock of lending to all UK businesses. However, this should not be taken as a sign that SMEs enjoyed easier access to finance than did large enterprise.
In the latest survey conducted by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, the percentage of SMEs in need of financing rose to 26 percent in 2010 from its 2007-2008 figure of only 23 percent. It was however found that there has been a decline in the demand for bank finance. More than half were seeking finance for working capital, compared to 21 percent seeks it for investment purposes. The majority of those SMEs seeking finance were able to obtain the sum they required. Of those seeking finance, 68 percent obtain all the finance needed and 6 percent obtain some of the finance needed in 2010 (Gov.uk, 2014).
Only a small number of SMEs are looking for external equity financing, but it is important to take note that equity financing play a vital role in financing businesses that are seeking for innovation and achieve high-growth potential. Furthermore, the venture capital market endured a sharp decline between 2008 and 2009, specifically those in the expansion-stage investments. It was the growth stage which caused an overall increase in 2010.
It was also found that cash flow was a significant obstacle to the success of the business, just after the economy. Consequently, enterprise liquidations or bankruptcies peaked in 2009 and declined by 12 percent in 2010 but were on the rise again in 2011. However, the current liquidation rate is low by historical standards. In the 12 months ending in 2011, 0.7 percent of all active registered companies went into liquidation, which is substantially lower than the peak of 2.6 percent in 1993 and the average of 1.3 percent seen over the last 25 years.
A look at the UK alternative finance market can reveal that it enjoyed 91 per cent growth from £492 million in 2012 to £939 million in 2013. The market in general displayed average growth rate of 75.1 per cent for the past three years, contributing £1.74 billion of personal, business and charitable financing to the economy. It was also found that peer–to–peer charitable fundraising and crowdfunding were the two alternative types of financing that drew the most clients, at £310 million in 2013. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that the alternative market is already vital and diverse; peer–to–peer lending poured £287 million in 2013 to SMEs, followed by the following: peer–to–business lending, £193 million, invoice trading platforms, £97 million, equity crowdfunding, £28 million, and reward–based crowdfunding, £20.5 million (Collins, Swart and Zhang, 2013).
Alternative financing also enjoyed impressive growth rate. The accumulative and year–on–year growth rate of equity–based crowdfunding surged by 618 per cent in just one year, from 2012 to 2013. Peer–to–business lending ballooned by 211 per cent while peer–to–peer lending rose by 126 percent. This was followed by reward–based crowdfunding which grew by 387 percent, invoice trading, 167 percent, and debt–based securities, 170 percent (Collins, Swart and Zhang, 2013).
Alternative business financing funneled cash worth £463 million for early stage, growth and working capital to over 5,000 SMEs from 2011–13. It is expected that non-bank financing for SMEs will grow (at a conservative rate) to £1.6 billion in 2014 (Collins, Swart and Zhang, 2013).

Dubai

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) serve as a vital force that drives the economy of Dubai. SMEs represent 95 percent of all the businesses not only in Dubai but the entire United Arab Emirates. Furthermore, SMEs account for 42% of the workforce, which provide around 40% to the total value add generated in Dubai’s economy. Emphasis is given by the government to the enhancement and performance of the SME sector to make these businesses comparable to their counterparts in other developed and high income nations (Dubai SME, 2012).
The challenge, however, facing Dubai SMEs is the limited availability of externally sourced start-up financing as manifested by the majority (80 percent) of the survey respondents who revealed that personal money / savings as the primary source of finance for commencing their business operations in Dubai. Also, there is limited availability of bank finance for growth with only 23 percent of the survey respondents indicated that they were able to obtain bank financing in the last five years (Tsetsonis, 2014).
The most profound reason indicated by business owners of obtaining business financing is to address their working capital requirements (as indicated by 59 percent of the survey respondents). Furthermore, 37 percent businesses reported that capital expansion / investment in their business is the reason behind why external financing is obtained. About 4 percent mentioned that they have accessed a combination of long-term and short-term financing. Summing these up, only 10 percent of the SMEs were able to get long-term financing for capital investment in their business (Tsetsonis, 2014).
The typical amount obtained for long-term financing for SMEs is AED1 to 5 million for those who obtained short-term financing requirements, roughly AED 1 million per year is granted. These could be in the form of short term loans, revolving credit and / or trade financing facilities.
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) conducted a survey in 2006, which reported that most SEMs in Dubai have to forcibly depend on friends and family to finance their business (World Bank, 2010). Thus, business angels were the main source of funding. While most banks in Dubai charge minimal interest as mandated by Islamic laws, SMEs, however, have difficulty in accessing funds from banks (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor UAE, 2006). A survey conducted by Union of Arab Banks and the World Bank reported low bank lending SMEs (only 8 percent). A report from Dun &Bradstreet on SME lending in UA in 2008 revealed that banks reject between 50 to 70 percent of loan applications. Unsecured loans are charged 15 percent.
On the brighter side, UAE has started to give emphasis on SMEs, providing a number of seed funds and financial options for SMEs. The opening of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation was aimed at diversifying and helping Arab economies grow with the creation of the first Seed Capital fund and Business Angel network called Arab Business Angel Network (ABAN).

United States

The United States Small Business Administration (USSBA) broadly classifies small businesses as any firm with 500 or fewer employees. These firms account for more than 26 million businesses or 99 percent of all firms. They employ slightly over half of the private sector jobs, and create more than half of the nonfarm private GDP (OECD, 2013).
There are some evidences that small firms' higher usage of labor and capital during this period is also associated with a modest increase in credit usage, at least by some financially-strong small firms. Getting a clear and decisive sense of the credit conditions of small firms continues to be hampered by significant lack of data. There are indications, however, that additional data will be collected in the near future (OECD, 2013).
In addition, recent developments in data availability from the private sector has slightly alleviated this data deficiency, however, it has also increased the analytical complexity for arriving at a comprehensive understanding of small firms' credit conditions.
Data from the Federal Reserve Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices indicates that the net percent of bankers reporting stronger credit demand by small firms rose from the second half of 2009 and throughout 2010, but has moderated during 2011-2012.
As a total group, small firms are reporting a lower percentage of them are borrowing, indicating that some small firms, presumably the financially weaker ones, have not re-entered the credit markets (OECD, 2013).
Traditionally, many analysts have used data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Call reports to assess the credit conditions of small firms. This data shows that small loan balances (less than 1 million) at FDIC insured institutions have continued to decline since peaking during the second quarter of 2008.
The following are the types of financing SMEs in the US used to meet their capital needs as reported by NSBA (2012): revolving credit line from a bank (43 percent); credit cards (37 percent); earnings of the business (32 percent); bank loan (29 percent); vendor credit (20 percent); private loans from friends or family (19 percent); leasing (8 percent).
Data provided by the NSBA (2012) revealed that as early as 1993, there is a direct correlation between financing and SME’s ability to employ people. The availability of funding, therefore, helps create jobs although the possibility of getting financial backing for SMEs even in such a progressive economy as the US is difficult. For one, SMEs mall either have limited or do not have assets as collateral for bank loans. Rather than easing the terms for SMEs, these challenges seemed to have worsened in years. NSBA reports that almost half (43 percent) of SME owners or managers required funds but failed to get lender. This caused SME owners either to downsize or reduce employee benefits.
Furthermore, 29 percent of small-business owners who responded to NSBA’s survey found that their loans or credits were reduced. Worse is the case of 10 percent of those who responded who reported that their loans were called in early, like being given less than 15 days to settle their financial obligations.

Eurozone

SMEs also have a core function in terms of economic activity and employment in Europe. The sectors that make up and their performance during the financial crisis varied considerably among individual countries. A look focus on the domestic market and an overwhelmingly large share of micro firms in the southern countries of the euro area have made these SMEs less resilient to the macroshocks and changes in domestic demand of recent years (Kaya, 2014).
Despite their major contribution to the real economy and their importance for the recovery, the spectrum of funding alternatives available to SMEs is constrained compared with large enterprises. As a result of their organizational features and business strategies that are rarely publicly disclosed, SMEs are usually not as transparent as large enterprises. This informational opacity limits their access to standardized public markets for equity and debt (Kaya, 2014).
The Bank for the Accounts of Companies Harmonized (BACH) database sheds light on the differences between balance sheets of SMEs and those of large firms. The share of bank loans in total assets is inversely related with firm size. Bank loans make up 24 percent of small and 20 percent of medium sized firms’ balance sheets. This is greater than the 11 percent for large firms. SMEs, on the other hand, have difficulty in raising funds directly from investors. For example, none of the SMEs issued any (debt or equity) securities, which also account for less than 1 percent of medium-size firms’ balance sheets, a stark contrast to the 4 percent for large corporations. Clearly, prohibitively high legal, accounting and marketing costs together with SMEs’ inherent structural characteristics, ownership features, among others, are considerable obstacles for SMEs to issue equity. Against a similar backdrop of exorbitant fixed costs, tapping bond markets is not a viable option for the overwhelming majority of SMEs either. Debt capital market financing in the euro area is generally much more limited compared with the US which as such already makes tapping bond markets a less likely alternative even for large firms. As a consequence, it is not surprising to see barely any SME issuing bonds. Taken together, unlike large enterprises which may turn to the capital markets, SMEs largely rely on bank loans for funding. This narrow set of financing sources makes them more vulnerable to changing conditions in credit markets (OECD, 2013).
A cross-country comparison reveals a striking divergence in access to finance being an obstacle for SMEs. Access to external funding is the single most challenging problem for SMEs in Italy, as indicated by 19 percent of firms and the second most challenging problem for SMEs in Spain, as mentioned by 18 percent of firms. The situation has deteriorated in particular in Italy with the share having increased significantly (up 5 percent) since the first half of 2010. SMEs in France reported modest problems in their access to finance (cited by 13 percent of firms). At the other extreme, only 6 percent of German SMEs report access to finance as their most pressing problem, down from 11 percent in 2010 which seems to be in line with both more relaxed credit supply conditions and lower external funding needs of German SMEs. The survey also asks for more details about the exact problems SMEs face in accessing their most important source of funding, i.e. bank loans. For instance, 11% of the SMEs in the Euro zone reported that their credit application was rejected outright in the second half of 2013, and 10 percent received only a limited part of the loan sum they had applied for.10 Moreover, 6 percent did not apply at all, fearing possible refusal. There is strong cross-country heterogeneity in rejection rates too. On the one hand, in Germany, SMEs hardly experience problems obtaining bank credit: only 1 percent was rejected when they applied for credit and only 6 percent report they got a smaller loan than needed. Moreover, the rate of discouraged SMEs in Germany stands at around 2 percent, the lowest level in the entire euro area, and is down from 11 percent in 2010. On the other hand, Italian and Spanish SMEs report both high rejection rates (almost 15 percent and 10 percent, respectively) and a high share (almost 15 percent each) of loan applications that were only partly approved.
Overall, while having the greatest need for loans, it seems that SMEs in the countries with the fiercest recession and highest unemployment struggle the most in their access to bank credit, which is attributable to weaker profitability and lower capital positions. Meanwhile, if SMEs’ demand for credit rises due to limited availability of internal funds, supply side problems in bank lending become more critical. This demand-supply imbalance may be more severe in countries such as Spain and Italy which is also reflected in unfavorable lending rates to SMEs.
Furthermore, a survey conducted by the European Commission in 2013 on SME's access to finance revealed that obtaining business financing emerged as the second most pressing problem mentioned by 15 percent of EU SME managers or owners, next to finding customers.
On a per country basis, obtaining financing was the most difficult problem that faces 40 percent of SMEs in Cyprus, 32 percent in Greece, 23 percent in Spain and Croatia, 22 percent in Slovenia, and 20 percent in Italy, Ireland and the Netherlands. In Slovakia, Greece, and Cyprus, the problem of obtaining business financing was deemed really pressing by SME owners and managers (European Commission, 2013).
SMEs were also found to get external financing than larger enterprises, while the latter more likely obtained a combination of internal and external financing.
In general, SME owners and managers highly prefer the following as form of business financing: bank overdrafts (39 percent), leasing/hire purchasing/factoring (35 percent), trade credit (32 percent) and bank loans (32 percent). Furthermore, majority (75 percent) of SMEs in Europe obtained at least one form of debt financing. Equity financing was utilized by only 5 percent of SMEs, while 21 percent applied either bank loans or bank overdraft.
Furthermore, the report by European Commission indicated that banks were still the leading institutions providing loan to 85 percent of all SMEs. The rest obtained financing to non-bank sources, including private individuals, microfinance firms and government agencies. In Luxembourg and Greece, almost all of the SMEs obtained financing from banks.

Spain

In Spain, 99.8 percent of the 1.2 million enterprises were SMEs in 2010, giving employment to 67 percent of the business labor force. Eighty-nine percent were microenterprises, 9.2 percent were small and 1.4 percent were medium sized. Both SME and total new business loans declined between 2007 and 2011. There was no recovery in 2010-2011. SME loans were particularly affected and the SME loan share declined from almost 40 pecent in 2007 to 33 percent in 2011.
Furthermore, interest rates on loans to nonfinancial enterprises showed a downward trend between end-2008 and mid-2010. The interest rate spread between small and large loans increased over the period from 2007 to 2011. According to Bank Lending Survey, credit institutions tightened credit standards applied to business loans between mid-2007 and mid-2010, affecting both SMEs and large companies. According to this source banks have not changed these standards from mid-2010, but, given the tightening accumulated in the early stages of the crisis, credit standards remain strict. This probably explains their poor business performance during the period.
Venture capital is still underdeveloped in Spain. It was EUR 3.6 billion in 2010. According to the Spanish Association of Venture Capital (ASCRI), venture capital firms financed 886 companies in 2011; 95 percent of them were start-ups or those in early stage development. Venture capital firms in Spain were shareholders of 3,530 companies and 91 percent SMEs. Furthermore, fiscal incentives are used to promote venture capital investment, although individual investors may not hold over 40 percent of the company's share capital and must hold the shares for a period between three to seven years.
On the other hand, SMEs ruled bankrupt in 2011 increased by a factor of five in comparison with 2007 figures. More than 30 percent of companies in construction and property development have gone bankrupt.
The government has undertaken several measures to ensure SMEs' access to finance. This set of measures includes financial measures to facilitate access to credit and fiscal measures to support businesses. For example, the Systems of Contracts for Reciprocal Interest Adjustment (CARI) was reformed to encourage the granting of export credit ans well as promoting export credit insurance.
Business financing aside from personal capital and bank financing is popular among Spanish. Funding from the Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO), the country’s financing agency, is also a significant providing of business financing. However, other funding channels, including non-banking entities are not yet explored by majority of SMEs in Spain .

Switzerland

In Switzerland, SMEs are defined as firms with up to 250 employees. SMEs make up 99.6 percent of Switzerland's enterprises, employing 66.6 percent of the total labor force. It was found that SME business loans continued to grow both during the crisis and in the recovery period. The share of SME loan and total business loans was over 81 percent in 2007, although it was not possible to compare the 2007 ration with 2011 because of definition chanages at the national level. Share of SME credit used to credit authorized was about 77 percent during 2007-2011 period. Banks reported tightening of their lending standards for SME loans in 2011. However, the somewhat tighter lending standards hardly affected loan volumes. There were no data on interest rates or collateral requirements for 2007 and 2008.
In June 2012 the Swiss Federal Council published a report which praised the Swiss venture capital market for doing well, although plans have been proposed to improve the venture capital environment in the area of tax and corporate laws.
Furthermore, seed financing, necessary for the creation of startup enterprises, was difficult to obtain. There is potential for the commercialization of research results, although investors are reluctant to invest in such early stages because of high risk. Interestingly, while liquidity problems were not growing or acute as elsewhere, insolvencies or bankruptcies rose 23 percent in 2009 and 20 percent in 2010 during supposed recovery, although the rise in 2011 was only 6.5 percent.

Canada

The Canadian statistics are based on SMEs when possible, but in many instances, due to data limitations, the country profile reports on only small businesses with 1-99 employees which represent 98.0% of businesses. As medium-sized enterprises, those with 100-499 employees, only represent 1.7% of Canadian businesses, their exclusion does not have significant impact on the data or results. In 2010, the Canadian small businesses employed 48.3% of the private sector. Among those employees, 76.3% are employed in the services sector and 23.7% in the goods sector.
Data from supply-side surveys show that while debt outstanding to all businesses peaked in 2008 at CAD 480 billion, lending to SMEs slightly declined that year to CAD 83.3% billion. As a result, the share of outstanding loans to SMEs, which stood at 15.6%, hit the lowest point since 2000. In contrast, in 2009, while total debt outstanding fell, outstanding debt owed by SMEs increased. This resulted in re-establishing the share of SME outstanding debt to 17.9%, a level slightly higher than before the financial crisis. In 2010, there were few changes in levels of both total and SME outstanding debt. When looking at the period 2000-10, debt financing for large businesses grew, while it remained relatively flat for SMEs. Furthermore, small businesses clearly experienced tightened credit conditions during and after the crisis. The average business prime rate, which is typically the rate change to the most creditworthy borrowers, declined from 6.1% (2007)- 2.6% (2010) while the interest rate for the SMEs remained high at 7.5% (2007) and 5.8% raise to 1 (2010). More importantly, the business risk premium (the difference between the average small business interest rate and the business prime rate) increase sharply from 1.4% in 2007 to 3.2% in 2010. The percentage of small businesses that were asked for collateral also increased from 47.7% to 66.7% during the same period. Equity provided in the form of venture capital decreased between 2007 and 2009 and the rose slightly in 2010.
Despite these difficult credit conditions, the incidence of business insolvency decreased from 3.1 per 1000 enterprises in 2008 to 2.2 per 1000 enterprises in 2010. During the height of financial crisis, between the fourth quarter of 2008 and the fourth quarter of 2009, the number of business insolvency cases actually decreased by 14.7%. This is contrary to economic expectations. However, this phenomenon can be partially explained by the fact that the demand slump faced by the SMEs was less severe than in many other countries. In general, Canadian SMEs are less export-oriented than larger firms, and domestic demand remained relatively strong during the financial and economic crisis, increasing at an average annual rate of 4.2% between 2007 and 2009. This strength in domestic demand benefited SMEs.
It is worth noting that, during the recession, business insolvencies increased in most export-oriented sectors: mining, oil and gas extraction and manufacturing. Additionally, SMEs are traditionally more flexible than large businesses allowing them to organize different aspects of work more easily to achieve cost reductions. In some, the flexibility found in the Canadian economy allowed businesses to make gradual adjustments in their cost structure, thereby helping to avoid insolvency. Together, the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), Export Development Canada (EDC) and the Canada Small Businesses Financing Program (CSBFP) provided financing support to small businesses in the form of direct loans and guaranteed loans of CAD 5.6 billion in 2007, CAD 5.4 billion in 2008, CAD 6.7 billion in 2009 and CAD 6.0 billion in 2010.
In Canada, domestic banks are still the leading financing institutions for SMEs, followed by Caisses populaires and finance companies with continued increase loans, too. Insurance companies and portfolio managers are preferred financial institutions as well. (Industry Canada, 2013).

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