meetings of the OECD Committee for Financial Markets (CMF) and the OECD Working Party on SMEs and Entrepreneurship (WPSMEE) and benefitted from comments by delegates and OECD Secretariat staff. It also profited from discussions held with private sector participants at an OECD Financial Roundtable hosted by the CMF in April 2014 (Nassr and Wehinger, 2014). This work contributes to the report on "New approaches to SME and entrepreneurship finance: broadening the range of instruments" which is part of the OECD-wide "New Approaches to Economic Challenges" (NAEC) project. The authors are grateful for comments received but are solely responsible for any remaining errors. The cutoff date for regulatory changes and information was end-December 2014. This work is published on the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of OECD member countries. This document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are key contributors to economic growth and job creation. The current economic and financial crisis has reduced bank lending and has affected SMEs in particular. Capital markets will have to play a bigger role in financing SMEs in order to make them more resilient to financial shocks. This article reviews the spectrum of alternative market-based debt instruments for SME financing. It focuses on securitisation and covered bonds and also addresses issues regarding small/mid-cap bonds and private placements. It reviews the current state of the market for these instruments and identifies associated risks; analyses the barriers for issuers and investors alike; and provides best practices and high level recommendations to help alleviate barriers without hampering the overall stability of the system.

is a senior economist in the Financial Affairs Division of the OECD Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs. This article is an abbreviated and revised version of a paper prepared for the meeting of the OECD Committee on Financial Markets (CMF) on 17-18 October 2013. It benefitted from the discussions at that meeting and at the meeting of the OECD Working Party on SMEs and Entrepreneurship (WPSMEE) on 22-23 October 2013, where parts of the paper were presented, as well as from written comments by delegates. The author is also grateful for contributions and comments by staff from the SME and Entrepreneurship Division of the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs and Local Development and other OECD staff. The author is solely responsible for any remaining errors. This work is published on the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Organisation or the governments of its member countries. This document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area. After a brief overview of current financing difficulties for SMEs and policy measures to support SME lending during the crisis, this article presents a literature review related to difficulties in SME's access to finance during the crisis, against a background of a sharp decline in bank profitability and an erosion of bank capital that negatively affected lending. The articles reviewed are classified according to four main issues of interest: the impairment of the bank-credit channel and its economic effects; factors potentially attenuating the effect of a financial squeeze; the role of global banking in mitigating but also transmitting financial shocks; and, looking ahead, issues related to so-called "credit-less recoveries" that should be relevant in guiding policy makers in the current environment of financial deleveraging. All the results hold important implications for policy making given the bail-outs and the large injections of liquidity by central banks during the crisis.

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As the OECD is celebrating its 50th anniversary, member countries are exiting from the biggest post-war financial and economic crisis and are trying to put their economies back onto strong, sustainable footing. While financial reforms should provide for a better, more sustainable balance between stability and growth, measures to strengthen the savings-investment channel should foster sustainable growth and development. These issues were explored at a High-Level OECD Financial Roundtable and are summarised in this article. Covered are the topics of financial reform to foster stability and long-term growth, the contribution of institutional investors to long-term growth, and creating a better environment for the financing of business innovation and green growth. With strained public sector finances, private capital needs to fill the funding gap for infrastructure and other long-term projects. Appropriate regulatory incentives to overcome short-termism, as well as risk-sharing arrangements e.g. via publicprivate partnerships, are needed in order to encourage market-based, long-term investment and risk capital financing. Better transparency, information and investor education can also play a role in enhancing long-term savings and investment.