We explain the financial instruments most commonly used by SMEs to finance themselves.
Learn about the main sources of financing for SMEs.
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To understand their financing needs, SMEs must carry out a good financial diagnosis . This diagnosis will help them understand their financial needs , both for their business growth and to ensure their short-term liquidity .
Financial diagnosis must be reliable cyprus email list and automated. By using good accounting software, it is easier to make the right decisions regarding the company's financing needs.
Regarding the form of external financing of companies, the non-profit association CESGAR has published the XI Report on SME financing in Spain for the year 2021. Important data and conclusions are drawn from this report that you are interested in knowing.
The main objective of this organization is to generate knowledge about the situation of Spanish SMEs and self-employed workers in relation to external financing .
hed extraordinarily high levels, the highest since 2015, the year in which this CESGAR report began to be produced. In 2021, 57.9% of Spanish SMEs have had financing needs, which represents an increase of 23 percentage points compared to the last pre-pandemic data in the historical series, referring to the year 2019.
What are the most commonly used financial instruments for financing by SMEs?
According to the report published by CESGAR, during 2021, the most used instruments have been those linked to the financing of working capital , among which the following stand out:
Supplier credit or trade credit . This form of financing is back at levels close to 24% and increases by more than 7 percentage points compared to pre-pandemic levels. This is the fastest and cheapest form of financing, since, except for the loss of early payment discounts, it is free for companies.
Bank loans . 22.5% of SMEs have turned to this source of financing.
ICO credit lines or loans . The deployment carried out by the ICO during the pandemic is observed in the significant increase in SMEs that have used ICO Lines in 2021, which stands at 19.7%.
Bank credit lines or bank discounts . This source of financing was used by 17.8% of SMEs.
Leasing or financial leasing has also seen significant growth in its utilization levels (from 9.4% in 2020 to 12.6% in 2021).
Other banking products, such as factoring or confirming , show lower levels of use, which is probably explained by the drop in activity in many SMEs during the pandemic.
The following graph shows the level of use and the average valuation of the different financial instruments used by SMEs in 2021.
