Access to finance in South East Europe

Governments can help facilitate enterprises’ access to the external financing that they need to expand their operations or invest in new capacities and capital goods. This chapter analyses policy development and implementation in five sub-dimensions that make up the Access to Finance Dimension. The Regulatory and Institutional Framework Sub-Dimension examines credit information services, movable asset registration systems, cadastres, collateral requirements, and personal and corporate banking procedures. The second sub-dimension, Access to Bank Finance, assesses banking sector competition and consumer protection and credit guarantee schemes. The Access to Equity Finance Sub-Dimension evaluates enterprises’ use of stock markets, venture capital and business angel networks. The Alternative Sources of Financing Sub-Dimension evaluates if enterprises have access to leasing, factoring, crowd-funding and micro-finance financing options. Finally, the Financial Readiness Sub-Dimension examines the strategies that are in place to help the general population and entrepreneurs better understand the role of financial markets and how to use them.