Transcript Banks, SMEs and Accountants 1

Professor Robin
Jarvis
Head of SME
Affairs
ACCA’s
International
Research
projects
Presentation
• Banks, SMEs and Accountants
• Regulation: Comparisons of the UK with
Australia
• Work-in-progress
Banks, SMEs and Accountants 1
Countries/regions surveyed: Germany, Spain, UK, US
and Hong Kong
Reasons for choosing these countries/regions
•
•
•
•
•
Banking structures
Banking relationships
Types of finance used
Cost of raising finance
The role of the accountant
Banks, SMEs and Accountants 2
Methodology:
• 200 telephone interviews with SMEs
• Focus Groups with accountants
• 61% of SMEs had a turnover less than £1m
Banks as a source of finance
•
•
Respondents were asked if they had sought to raise
external finance in the last three years
Only 22% said yes
•
Banks were the main source (53%) with exception of
SMEs with a turnover between
£50k - £250k
•
84% of applications were successful
%
All
UK
GER
ESP
HK
USA
Finance sought (in
last 3 yrs)
22
17
19
28
22
24
From Main Bank
53
37
57
66
54
43
Other Source
29
54
27
14
23
36
Both
18
9
16
20
23
21
Successful in Full
84
89
81
87
80
92
Successful in Part
6
9
3
9
5
2
Refused by
Financier(s)
3
0
5
4
7
0
Refused by SME
1
0
3
0
2
2
Did not know
5
2
8
0
6
4
Accountants advice
in negotiations with banks
All
UK
Germany
Spain
Hong
Kong
Advice on
finance
%
%
%
%
%
%
Yes
49
36
52
67
47
43
No
40
49
38
28
40
44
Do not need
11
15
10
5
13
13
958
200
188
189
196
185
n=
328
32
67
105
83
41
Percentage of
those who advise
70%
44%
69%
83%
90%
52%
Percentage of
total sample
34%
16%
36%
56%
42%
22%
n=
US
Active role
Regulation
Why is the issue regulation so
prominent in Australia and the UK?
AUSTRALIAN AND UK CONTEXT
Australia 9th and the UK 6th easiest place to ‘do
business’ (World Bank 2008)
UK administrative burden = £19.7bn per annum
(1.6% GDP)
Australian administrative burden = estimates
between AU$11bn and AU$17bn per annum (1.3%
GDP)
METHODOLOGY
Survey of Australian and UK owner managers and
accountants
Sample sizes:
UK = 515 SMEs and 273 practicing accountants
Australia = 250 SMEs and 130 practicing
accountants
Slight bias in both samples towards firms employing
between 50 and 249 people and against firms
employing less than 10 people
REGULATIONS ARE REASONABLE
84
83
58
74
80
81
76
80
73
100
60
40
20
0
Tax filing
HR/Payroll
Employment
Australia
Environmental
UK
Excluding ‘Don’t knows’ and ‘Not Applicable’ answers
Work in Progress
• Accountants as Providers of Support and Advice to
SMEs: an Asian-Pacific study
• The Roles of Competence, Trust and Professional
Ethics in the Supply of External Financial Advice to
SMEs
• Income and reward: understanding selfemployment decisions