Improving the SMEs Access to Trade Finance DRAFT
in the OIC Member States
42
Table 4: Providers of Trade Finance
Source: How to Access Trade Finance, UN ITC 2009
While certain jurisdictions in Europe and the Americas have long been known by practitioners
and advocates of entrepreneurship to face situations of “under-servicing” of small and
medium-sized enterprises, it is encouraging to observe greater focus and emphasis on
opportunities related to the financing of SMEs, almost universally across the globe.
The experience of Germany and its positive and committed support of the SME sector,
particularly the family-owned enterprises referred to as the “mittelstand” is instructive in its
positive effects on the national economy which withstood the global crisis largely on the basis
of export-driven economic robustness.
The degree of support and “hand-holding” required by small businesses has been problematic
to bankers as providers of finance and trade finance: a significant cost to maintaining customer
relationships that are, on the commercial side at least, low-margin and relatively risky. Banks
in Europe and the United States have recently been compelled by political authorities to
provide enhanced services and better financing to the SME segment as one direct outcome of