Survey on Corporate Attitudes Towards the SME Financing Facilitation Act

33.9% of the companies that have used debt rescheduling are “underperforming their management improvement plans”

— 35.0% recognize that financial institutions have been “getting tough” on grace for repayment recently —

- Introduction

The Act Concerning Temporary Measures to Facilitate Financing for Small and Medium–Sized Enterprises, etc. (“SME Financing Facilitation Act”) has been in effect for over two years since December 2009 after the Lehman crisis, and will expire in March 2012. Now it is very likely that a revision bill to the SME Financing Facilitation Act will be submitted to the ordinary Diet session in 2012 to extend the expiration of the Act by another year. Teikoku Databank conducted a survey on corporate attitudes towards the alteration of terms on business loans based on the SME Financing Facilitation Act and other related matters.

Teikoku Databank conducted a survey on corporate attitudes towards the 2012 business outlook.

Research Period: December 16, 2011 to January 5, 2012
Research Subject: 23,311 corporations across the nation
Valid responses: 10,578 corporations (response rate 45.4%)
This is the fourth survey following those conducted in February 2010, December 2009 and October 2009.

Primary points of survey results

• Of the companies that have used the measures by the SME Financing Facilitation Act, over 50% have used them more than once.



• In alteration of terms, two in three companies have implemented debt rescheduling, with 35.0% having “reduced the amount of each repayment”



• 33.9% of the companies that have used debt rescheduling are “underperforming their management improvement plans”



• 35.0% recognize that financial institutions have recently been “getting tougher” on grace for repayment



• 33.8% do not expect a full-scale recovery in demand even in the long term

Survey on Corporate Attitudes Towards the SME Financing Facilitation Act