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Equity financing and venture capital are important sources of SME’s financing, and well placed to support European policies on growth and innovation. They can also help leverage the resources of the rest of the financial industry. Still, equity financing suffers from significant drawbacks that lead to its under-utilisation by SMEs- were the main conclusions of a roundtable recently organised at the European Parliament

Equity finance is still underutilised by small and medium sized businesses across Europe. With the bank lending environment being tightened and the reliance of the European economic recovery on innovative, high growth firms; improving the SME access to equity finance will be crucial in ensuring European long-term competitiveness.  The SME Union recently co-organised with ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants), UEAPME (the European Association of Craft, Small and Medium- sized Enterprises ) and EFAA (the European Federation of Accountants and Auditors for small businesses) a roundtable called 'Facilitating access to equity finance – from trusted advisers to active intermediaries'- at the European Parliament in Brussels. Further details are on the ACCA Global website.

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