Policy measures to improve access to credit for SMEs: a survey

Governments, central banks and development banks around the world have a long history of intervention in the credit market for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). These interventions are justified by economic research which has found that enterprises facing credit constraints are less likely to participate in growth-enhancing activities such as investment, marketing, hiring, exporting and importing. Since the onset of the financial crisis in 2008, a number of policy initiatives have been adopted in Ireland with the aim of improving credit flow to SMEs. This article provides a survey of the range of SME credit schemes available to policy makers, allowing the Irish position to date to be placed in a comparative context.