Last week, on Wednesday 10th of November, the Forum on Co-operative Banks and innovation in SMEs Financing was successfully held at the EESC in Brussels. The event was organised by the CIBP, the EACB, the UNICO Banking Group, and the UEAPME. Find a summary of the main messages in this article.
The Forum started with the opening speech by Mr. G. Dassis, Président of the EESC, who highlighted that 'SMEs are the main source of economic growth and job creation but they often struggle to fund their research or enter in markets'. 'Regulation should not discourage the financing of SMEs'.He closed his speech by saying 'We'll be better equipped to secure SMEs financing by working in partnership with EU institutions, member states, stakeholders and co-operative banks'.
The 1st roundtable, moderatede by Mr. Ranchere from Anthemis Group, was focused on cooperation between marketplace lending platforms and cooperative/popular banks in SME financing. Here are some of the main quotes :
'Is Hybrid Lending the future for financing SMEs ?' Erich Kühnelt
'Banks have the data and together with the fintechs they can make the difference' Auke Douwe
'Bank's expertise can help investors in p2p financing protecting customers from wrong decisions' Fabian Prystav
'Proportionality is a very important point for us at DG Fisma' Andrea Beltramello
Mr. Geert Van der Hoorst, from Unico Banking Group, introduced the second rountable on innovative Financing SMEs with EFSI & financial instruments which was moderated by Mr. Mogni.
'Co-operative banks and saving banks are financing the real economy' Mr. Ikrath
Finally, the third roundtable focused on on how the regulatory framework is affecting co-operative banks in financing SMEs. Ms. Marieke Van Berkel, head of unit at the EACB was moderating the panel. This panel highlighted the importance of proportionality in banking regulation for the co-operative banking business model.
'The supervisors and regulators have to take into consideration to the #coopbanks business models' Mr Trias Pinto
'SMEs are much better served by countries with a large amount of #coopbanks' Gerhard Huemer 
'Small banks are more and more under pressure from supervisors Basel III' Gerhard Huemer
'#coopbanks don't have time to dedicate to innovation if they have to focus on the regulation framework' Volker Heegemann
Mr. Hervé Guider, General Manager of the EACB concluded the event and insisted on 'diversity of business models contribute to the stability of the financial framework'.
Find the EESC post event article HERE.
