Access to credit for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is an important condition of successful economic growth. Lending to SMEs is no longer restricted to banks: many new players (or alternative lenders) are entering the credit market. However, the research has not identified what kind of SMEs choose these alternative lenders. Are they just a random sample from the overall population of SMEs or are they different in some specific respects? Is their credit quality better or worse? This study provides a general overview of the external financing landscape for the UK SMEs and an exploratory analysis of the SME portfolio of one of the alternative lenders in the United Kingdom. The results indicate that clients of the alternative peer-to-peer lender are younger and have more debt, but they also have higher returns than a generic sample of UK SMEs. Their probability of default, as estimated by the SME Z-score, is lower. We conclude that the alternative markets for SME lending may be heterogeneous in terms of risk. At least some alternative lenders have a sound risk level and are attractive to high-quality borrowers. Therefore, they act as a substitute for traditional lending.

中文翻译：

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从英国“替代”贷方借款的中小企业：他们是谁？

中小企业获得信贷是经济成功增长的重要条件。向中小企业贷款不再局限于银行：许多新的参与者（或替代贷款人）正在进入信贷市场。然而，该研究尚未确定什么样的中小企业选择这些替代贷款人。它们只是从中小企业总体中随机抽取的样本，还是在某些特定方面有所不同？他们的信用质量是好是坏？本研究概述了英国中小企业的外部融资格局，并对英国另类贷款机构之一的中小企业投资组合进行了探索性分析。结果表明，另类 P2P 贷方的客户更年轻，债务更多，但它们的回报也高于英国中小企业的一般样本。根据 SME Z 分数估计，它们的违约概率较低。我们得出结论，中小企业贷款的替代市场在风险方面可能是异质的。至少一些替代贷款人具有良好的风险水平，并且对优质借款人具有吸引力。因此，它们可以替代传统贷款。