|
Who we are
The Network for Regional SME Finance, FinNetSME, is a network project designed to encourage an intensive exchange between regional public financiers on how to improve access to finance for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). To this end, 23 partners from nine EU Member States discuss current problems of SME finance, compare the situation in their respective regions and will suggest practical ways to bridge the market gap in SME finance, with or without public funding. The project contributes to a greater awareness of the value of regional access to finance in the partners' regions. Through the establishment of enhanced co-operation among the partners and other stakeholders, the network makes it easier for all parties involved to gain expertise in facilitating access to finance.
In order to create the broadest possible basis for the discussion the range of participants in the network also includes actors who are not formal project partners. They take part in the network as associated partners. Additionally to the contributions from the network partners, FinNetSME sought to include input from third parties interested in SME-financing, notably other European networks, be they networks of financiers, of SMEs or thematic networks dealing with high tech or innovation technology initiatives. In this way, existing best practice have been cross-linked and knowledge of partners with different viewpoints on the issue of SME-financing integrated.
The regions represented by the partners in the project cover all parts of the EU from Spain in the West to Lithuania in the East, from Greece in the South to Finland in the North. FinNetSME was initiated by the State Development Bank of the Free State of Saxony (SAB), the Investitionsbank Schleswig-Holstein (IB-SH), the European Association of Public Banks (EAPB) and the European Association of Development Agencies (EURADA). It is co-financed with Interreg IIIC means and led by SAB as lead partner. FinNetSME is designed for an initial period of three years (July 2004 to June 2007), but the cooperation is to go on beyond the initial co-financing phase.
Starting point
As emphasised by the EU Lisbon Strategy and mirrored in the Third Cohesion Report, SMEs play a key role in regional development. They ensure economic and social cohesion as well as sustainable development. However, they depend on adequate access to finance. Currently, the market does not respond sufficiently to the finance needs of SMEs, particularly in the economically less dynamic regions. The issue of insufficient access to finance for SMEs is of particular relevance to the regional specialised funding institutions, owned and run by their respective governments and specialised in SME finance, as they hold key responsibilities in creating favourable conditions for the regional economy.
There is a strong need for an inventory of existing good practices in SME finance to help improve the situation by exploiting the given financial sources in an innovative way. This results, amongst others, from the situation of decreasing public expenditure due to budgetary constraints and entails an increased need for intelligent and innovative financing solutions. Policy makers and financiers need a reliable source of regional know-how to find the best solutions for the development of their region. Typically though, regional actors are compartmentalised, and information of use to public financiers, entrepreneurs and potential investors is not shared. Despite the efforts to establish European and national networks for interaction on the issue of regional SME finance over the past years, the exchange of know-how between regional financiers on successful ways of employing public support structures for SMEs is still weak, and transparency is lacking.
FinNetSME addresses this problem by building a platform for public regional financiers to help them develop common regional tools and strategies promoting SME access to finance. To this end, FinNetSME seeks to establish a sustainable exchange of know-how between public SME financiers and to transfer the best practices gathered from the regional to the European level. Another aim is to raise awareness and disseminate information on the subject of SME support by public institutions.
Project Tools and Proceedings
Four working groups have elaborated models on those issues which FinNetSME identified as being of main interest: early-stage finance, micro-financing, equity-financing and the regional supply chain, i.e. the co-operation of the different finance providers in the regions. FinNetSME followed a three-step working approach. Starting from the accumulation of information, the existing support instruments were analysed in the respective working group. From this basis, guiding models of regional SME finance (including the design of instruments funded through ERDF mainstream, ESF, EIF etc.) have been developed, which serve to transport the experience gathered in FinNetSME into other regions. Future guidance thus is available for developers of financial schemes and regional supply chains.
As FinNetSME's main working tool, a database comprising publicly supported regional financial instruments and the models developed by FinNetSME has been set up. It is accessible on this website upon short registration. The database contains detailed and structured description of financial and non-financial instruments (financing sources, beneficiaries, eligible expenses etc.) and provides cross-links with information on the corresponding region, partner and financial/non-financial instruments. This allows for the support instruments to be comparable and grants accessibility for all partners and, once finalized, for the general public.
FinNetSME has organised four seminars to discuss core issues with regards to regional SME financing: "The Role of Regional Financiers in the EU", "The Regional Supply Chain", "Challenges for Regional Finance" and "Financial Engineering". These events will were hosted by the network partners and took place all over Europe. Additionally, three conferences were be open to all interested parties, reaching national and regional financial players, incubators, regional development agencies, business associations, public authorities and EU institutions. While the first conference in Brussels in November 2004 had the character of the official project kick-off, the second conference in Kiel, Germany, (in March 2006) provided the occasion for a mid-term review. The last conference, again in Brussels in June 2007, provided the opportunity to take stock of the results achieved and to discuss them with key players from the EU institutions and the regions. More information on the events is available in the events section of this website.
Results
FinNetSME has collected data on regional financing instruments and contact points; it has also described and compared public financing structures in different regions, as well as providing support services and grant schemes. This way, the problems in accessing finance faced by SMEs have been identified and the practices from partner regions assessed.
On the practical level, guiding models of regional SME finance have been elaborated. The partners of the network have developed their experience into templates that can be used in other regions to start corresponding initiatives and establish similar means. The models therefore form the essence of the network's activities and provide easily available advice on the development of i. a. financial instruments with EU support.
The guide on "Experiences and Practices" provides detailed information on the models, which are also available in the database, apart from giving an overview of the project history. The website, database, the "Experiences and Practices" guide and the electronic newsletters jointly serve to make the knowledge represented by FinNetSME more easily accessible for financial operators and beneficiaries (SMEs) in EU regions. Thus, a centre of competence of regional finance centralising existing regional knowledge and contacts has emerged.
FinNetSME contributes to regional development and to competitive regions in the EU by improving regional access to finance for SMEs and the quality of new financial instruments. Thus, it helps to foster enterprise creation and to stimulate a culture of entrepreneurship that will reduce unemployment. In the approaches taken, FinNetSME has anticipated many of the solutions for sustainable business support through banking instruments advertised for the funding period 2007-2013.
Experiences And Practices final
Esperienze e Best Practices final
FINNETSME_PresentationResults_final_060607 |
