What's New!

The European Investment Fund – EIF (INSME Member) has just published an updated version of the European Small Business Finance Outlook that provides relevant information related to the main markets EIF works on, namely the general market environment for SME finance, equity finance, SME guarantees, securitization market, microfinance and fintech.

With regard to the market environment, a positive economic outlook is reflected in SME business climate. SMEs have an optimistic vision of the future, in particular by looking at customer demand. Although public support measures significantly increased, one of the major challenges SMEs meet, is a lack of public support in accessing finance.

According to the publication, in 2016 investments by private equity fund in European companies declined by 2%, but investments in the venture capital market segment increased by 2% to Eur 4.3 billion. This trend changed in the first half of 2017, as showed by the data private equity investments has grown up to 12% compared to the second semester of 2016.

SME securitization still remains an underdeveloped market in Europe and its strengthening can be considered as a way to facilitate the flow of funds to the real economy.

The publication also reports insightful data related to microfinance - that can play a significant role in overcoming the effects of the crisis, and in particular to supporting inclusive growth - and fintechs -that are becoming an integral part of the SME financing landscape. They are drivers for new business models, new financing channels, and not least they are often successful start-ups and SMEs themselves.