Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) employ up to three-quarters of the population in many developing countries, and often account for almost one-third of their national gross domestic product (GDP), according to the World Bank. And with 55% of wages and salaries in Turkey being paid by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and 59% of exports coming from the segment in 2013 – according to data from the Turkish statistical office Turkstat – the picture is not much different in the country.
Yet the major obstacle that SMEs across the world are facing is access to finance. In Turkey, SMEs have only recently become a larger area of focus among banks, after additional macro-prudential policies to curb highly profitable consumer lending were implemented by the Turkish Banks Association in late 2013, which diverted lending to SMEs.
