It is favoured by firms’ inherent difficulty in going public, and sometimes their reluctance to do so, which limits their ability to place securities directly with non-bank intermediaries. Specifically, SMEs’ access to capital markets is often hampered by high fiscal and administrative costs, lack of transparency and the low propensity of family businesses to dilute control.
1 Let me recount just a few of our challenges: significant market turmoil, unsatisfactory economic growth, historic housing price declines, dramatic commodity price run-ups, risk of a secular reversal of global inflation trends, sharp changes in exchange rates, uneven and unprecedented contours of economic growth – and policy responses – across major trading partners, and significant domestic debate regarding optimal economic and regulatory policies.