SME Access to Credit since the Great Financial Crisis: What Impact Have New Monetary and Prudential Policies Had?

In this paper, we analyze the effects of monetary and prudential policies on access to credit for SMEs in the eurozone and more specifically in France. First, we propose a review of the main measures that may have had an effect on loans made to SMEs over the last decade. We then present the results of a number of studies based on granular data, the experience of the crisis, and economic policy decisions that followed in order to reassess estimates of these effects. Non-conventional monetary policy operations have had a positive effect on lending to the least risky large firms and SMEs. In a highly capital constrained period, the increase in bank capital had a general depressive effect on the amount of loans made. However, as far as SMEs are concerned, this effect was limited by a targeted reduction in bank capital linked to their exposure. The positive effect of this relief is most visible for medium-sized SMEs and even very small enterprises in a number of cases where analysis has been possible.