Insight in the financing conditions on SMEs and large enterprises in European countries

Since 2008, the European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB) have collaborated on the Survey on the Access to Finance of Enterprises (SAFE). This bi-annual survey provides an up-to-date insight in the financing conditions on SMEs and large enterprises in European countries, taking into account enterprises’ economic environment as well as their expectations for the future. Since 2014, the survey has been implemented by Panteia and GDCC.

Between 8 March and 16 April 2021, Panteia and GDCC have implemented the latest round of the SAFE survey. In this edition, 12 Euro-countries were covered:  Austria, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Slovakia. More than 11,000 enterprises in these countries have been asked about the challenges they experienced, including access to finance. In addition, enterprises have been asked about the extent applications to finance have actually been granted, which forms of external finance were available, and under which terms and conditions bank loans can be obtained. Also information on the characteristics and current state of enterprises has been collected. The data allow for analysis at the level of the Euro zone as well as cross-country comparison.

After collection and careful checking of the data, results have been submitted to the ECB. Results can be found at the ECB website.