The promotion of a more stable European banking system has become a priority which, not doubt, will bring important benefits to firms. However, bank stability comes with stronger regulations that could harm the access to finance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are highly dependent on bank financing. We provide new evidence on the association between the stability of a country’s banking system and SMEs access to finance through the study of borrower discouragement. We analyze 20,207 observations gathered among 16,382 firms operating in the EU-28 during the period 2011–2018. Applying multilevel methodology, our results show that SMEs operating in countries with more stable banking systems are less likely to be discouraged from applying for a loan. Working to achieve a more stable banking system does not seem to harm the access to finance of SMEs.

促进建立更稳定的欧洲银行体系已成为当务之急，毫无疑问，这将为企业带来重大利益。但是，银行的稳定伴随着更强大的法规，这可能会损害高度依赖银行融资的中小企业（SME）的融资渠道。通过研究借贷者的劝阻，我们提供了有关国家银行体系的稳定性与中小企业获得融资渠道之间的关联的新证据。我们分析了2011-2018年间在欧盟28国运营的16,382家公司中收集的20,207条观察结果。应用多级方法，我们的结果表明，在银行体系较为稳定的国家中经营的中小企业不太可能不愿申请贷款。