Understanding the SMEs Financing Gap to Enhance their Growth

Many questions have found no answer yet regarding SMEs financing. Actually SMEs present specific features giving rise to real constraints and leading to a financial gap. These specificities are the result of economic and behavioural characteristics and raise obstacles to their financing: a lack of information, a lack of incentives to growth and a lack of risk taking behaviour of financial institutions. But the structures of the French financial system are also a major explanation of this financing gap. Despite numerous dedicated financial instruments, French savings is not directed enough towards firms, especially SMEs. It is important therefore to improve the legal and regulatory environment to reduce all these obstacles and to induce behaviours changes.