Business lending: where we are, where we are going

It is 'vox populi' among small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, especially, that credit to companies has been at lower levels in recent years than not recommended, but rather lower than necessary to move forward with numerous projects in the most diverse productive sectors.

            This is not always achieved with own resources, with cash on hand, but fortunately for these SMEs, in the last decade and in the last five years, the weight of alternative financing with private capital has increased, beyond the provisions of traditional banks.

It is no secret that at the root of this general decline in corporate indebtedness is a sharp drop in bank lending. In 2008, the balance of credit to companies exceeded one trillion euros. Today, this volume stands at 540 billion. And most of this contraction is due, as is easy to imagine, to real estate and construction credit, with a reduction in the balance of 370 billion.

"In the midst of the increased risk aversion of traditional instruments and vehicles, alternative financing has become a tremendously useful resource with which small and medium-sized entrepreneurs have become familiar, and in which they know how to play their trump cards: when, how and why they use investment funds and debt funds.says Alfonso Merlos, vice-president of DEXTER.