Who are the key suppliers of debt financing to SMEs?
Chartered banks were the main suppliers of debt financing to SMEs in Canada in 2004, serving 63 percent of requests made by SMEs (see Figure 3). However, small authorizations of less than $1 million represented only 14 percent of overall lending by chartered banks.3 Other key suppliers of debt financing to SMEs were credit unions or caisses populaires. These institutions are primarily situated in the Prairie provinces, which received 34 percent of requests for debt financing, and Quebec, which received nearly 40 percent of such requests. Moreover, although domestic banks play an important role in financing SMEs, credit unions or caisses populaires focus more of their commercial debt authorizations on the smaller amounts (authorization of less than $250 000). In 2004, credit unions or caisses populaires captured nearly a third (29 percent) of the market for authorizations under $250 000 (see Figure 4), compared with 23 percent of the market for all authorizations to SMEs. Figure 3: Perc
