Credit Guarantee Schemes (CGSs) are a widely used policy tool to ease access to finance by SMEs, which, in some countries, ramped up in the aftermath of the 2008-09 financial crisis. The present study aims to improve understanding about the role, impact and sustainability of CGSs, by...

The recent economic and financial crisis has drawn attention to how mutual guarantee institutions (MGIs) facilitate small and medium enterprises in accessing bank financing. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, we describe the structural features of the Italian market for mutual guarantees...