On behalf of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate (EZK), we researched the Dutch SME financing market. Together with research centre Dialogic and Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, we researched the extent to which the current financing instruments and Ministry’s policy still fits in with the current development and needs of the SME financing market.  

The research focused on the current SME financing market, the developments therein and the effectiveness and efficiency of the policy mix. It is therefore mainly about whether the policy mix is still appropriate and future-proof. In this way, the ministry wishes to increase its knowledge, so they can form an appropriate policy.  

The research shows multiple bottlenecks for Dutch SMEs, which have been communicated to the House of Representatives last week via a letter to parliament. Examples of bottlenecks on the demand side of the market are that there is a lack of certainty, expertise and knowledge about financing possibilities and search costs. On the supply side, we found that the market for bank financing is dominated by a few large banks and that there is a limited regulation of the alternative financing market.  

Through sharing our findings with the government, we hope to achieve our goal to provide insight into the financing market for SMEs. This way, SMEs can find useful forms of financing with which they can finance their business operations, growth and innovation.   

Interested to know more? You can download the research now.