Recent ECB surveys show how SMEs and households reported increasing financing obstacles, with bank loans becoming harder to obtain.16 In addition, recent data suggest that SMEs, if they can obtain a loan, face higher costs of bank lending than large companies.
In fact, interest rate spreads on SME loans compared with those for large non-financial companies have widened to an average of 40 basis points since 2010. Finally, the crisis has brought to the fore the spatial (or geographical) dimension. Euro area countries suffered different fates during the crisis.