| Small and medium sized enterprises applying for different types of finance, 2014 | ||||
| % | ||||
| Size of Enterprise | Bank finance | Equity finance | Other types of finance | |
| Micro (1-9 Persons employed) | 20.0 | 1.7 | 5.0 | |
| Small (10-49 Persons employed) | 35.0 | 2.5 | 8.0 | |
| Medium (50-249 Persons employed) | 39.8 | 4.7 | 9.1 | |
| All SMEs (Under 250 Persons employed) | 21.4 | 1.8 | 5.3 | |
Results from the 2014 Access to Finance survey show that bank finance was the most popular type of finance sought. Over a fifth of all small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) applied for such finance in 2014. While 20% of micro sized enterprises applied for bank finance, the rate rose to 35% for small sized enterprises and increased again to 39.8% for medium sized enterprises.
Relatively few SMEs looked for finance from non-bank sources, for example only 4.7% of medium sized enterprises looked for equity finance compared to 39.8% of similar sized enterprises who looked for bank finance. Exporting SMEs generally made more applications for bank finance than non-exporting SMEs. See Headline table, Table 1 and Figures 1 & 2.
