They play both a substitute and complementary role for commercial banks as they are able to map the financing needs of the borrowers with the financing provision where the formal banking systems are confronted with regulatory constraints and/or where the formal banking system's requirements are onerous for the clients to comply with. 3.
On the ease of starting a business, recent reforms helped Greece jump from 147th place in the 2013 edition of the World Bank’s Doing Business ranking to 36th in 2014, i.e. 6th among EU countries and well ahead of Finland, Germany and Austria.