In today’s global economy, SMEs and entrepreneurs are at the heart of the search for inclusive growth. Ensuring small firms have access to finance in the appropriate forms and volumes is a prerequisite for their development and growth. It also becomes critical for their survival in times of crisis, such as the one the world is currently facing in the context of the COVID‑19 pandemic, which is having immediate and profound effects on SMEs.

Financing SMEs and Entrepreneurs 2020: An OECD Scoreboard provides a comprehensive framework for policy makers and other stakeholders to monitor access to finance by SMEs and entrepreneurs. This report also constitutes a valuable tool to support the design and evaluation of policy measures, and to monitor the implications of financial reforms on access to finance and financing conditions for SMEs more generally. The 2020 report provides information about SMEs’ and entrepreneurs’ access to finance over the 2007-18 period. Based on data collected for the country profiles and information from demand-side surveys, it includes indicators on debt, equity and asset-based finance, as well as on financing framework conditions, complemented by information on recent public and private initiatives to support SME access to finance.

SME and entrepreneurship financing trends are monitored through core indicators, listed in Table 1, selected on the criteria of usefulness, availability, feasibility and timeliness (see Annex A for a detailed description). In detail, the core indicators describe and monitor the following key dimensions:

Financing SMEs and Entrepreneurs 2020: An OECD Scoreboard provides information on SME financing trends and policies for 48 countries around the world over the 2007-18 period. The Scoreboard includes indicators of debt, equity, asset-based finance and framework conditions for SME and entrepreneurship finance, complemented by demand-side information and recent developments in public and private initiatives to support SME finance. Taken together, these indicators form a comprehensive framework for policy makers and other stakeholders to evaluate the financing needs of SMEs. The Scoreboard also constitutes a valuable tool to support the design and evaluation of policy measures, and to monitor the implications of financial reforms on access to finance and financing conditions for SMEs.

This document contains the draft of Chapter 1 of Financing SMEs and Entrepreneurs 2020: An OECD Scoreboard. It analyses trends in SME and entrepreneurship finance over 2007-18, based on data collected for the country Scoreboards and information from demand-side surveys. A short overview of the global business environment sets the framework for the analysis of SME financing trends and conditions, focusing in particular on the changes that occurred in 2018 and the first half of 2019. The chapter concludes with an overview of government policy responses put in place to improve SME access to finance in light of recent developments.

This chapter provides an overview of the evolution of SME financing policies across Scoreboard countries over the last decade, focusing on the immediate post-crisis period (2008-11), the early recovery years (from 2012) and the most recent emerging policy trends. It also documents developments in the regulatory environment for SME financing. It draws heavily from information received for the Scoreboard exercise since its inception as well as other work on SME access to finance conducted for the OECD Working Party on SMEs and Entrepreneurship.

This chapter contains a snapshot view of SME and entrepreneurship finance developments, as well as the scoreboard with core indicators, for countries covered in this report. A more comprehensive discussion is provided in the full country profiles published online.

Financing SMEs and Entrepreneurs: An OECD Scoreboard provides a framework to monitor trends in SMEs’ and entrepreneurs’ access to finance – at the country level and internationally – and supports the formulation and evaluation of policies in this domain.