Peril or Promise—How the SME Banking Sector Will Perform in 2022 and beyond? Do We See an Overreliance on Recovery?

The study takes a specific look at the microstructure of banking lending to SMEs and the latent trials in maintaining a better balance between the loan demand and supply after the COVID-19 pandemic to upkeep the overall economic goals. The global “war” on the COVID-19 pandemic and related economic waves indeed have led to the worldwide recession. The COVID-19 crisis becomes the most extensive systemic-risk unification the world has ever comprehended in the commercial sense. More actions are needed to avoid falling these economies into life-support despite government initiatives regarding new regulations and stimulus packages. Unfortunately, the smallest business segment struggles and fails to claim essential funding through internal and external sources due to inherent weaknesses and poor business architecture. Historically, the SME funding gap was one of the critical areas of discussion and research. Before the current situation, accessing financial services, crucial for SMEs’ growth, severely constrained many economies. However, the problem has further deteriorated. The prolonged low-interest environment, high competition, and compressed interest margins made many banks under-priced SME risk, particularly after the previous financial crisis. Against this backdrop, the predominant SME lenders experience high NPL ratios, adversely affecting the entire banking system’s soundness and lending to the real economy.