Description:
This European Small Business Finance Outlook (ESBFO) provides an overview of the main markets relevant to EIF (equity, guarantees/securitisation, microfinance). It is an update of the ESBFO December 2012. We start by discussing the general market environment, then look at the main aspects of equity finance and the guarantees/SME Securitisation (SMESec) market. Finally, we briefly highlight important aspects of microfinance in Europe. In previous ESBFO versions we touched the topic of SME guarantees only briefly. From now on, in addition to our already ‘traditional' analysis of the SMESec market, we include a specific section on SME guarantees in order to reflect the importance of this area for SME finance in Europe.