We conduct a survey among 1922 Swiss SMEs to analyze their access to bank loans. Credit-constrained SMEs are six times more likely to be discouraged than rejected. The most dominant reasons for being discouraged are too high collateral requirements, cumbersome application procedure, and the expectation of being turned down. Through a unique feature in the Swiss banking market, we also find new evidence for the importance of a strong firm–bank relationship. We challenge the assumption that discouraged borrowers are very similar to rejected borrowers. Our results indicate that the group of discouraged borrowers is more similar to the denied borrowers than to the group of approved borrowers, but only with respect to firm characteristics. For variables describing business development and firm–bank relationship, discouraged SMEs have less in common with credit-constrained firms than with their unconstrained counterparts. Even with a conservative prediction, about 60% of the discouraged firms would have obtained a bank loan if they had applied for one. The self-rationing mechanism observed is thus rather inefficient, and banks and policy makers should think about how to foster SMEs’ courage to apply for the bank loans they need.

我们对 1922 家瑞士中小企业进行了一项调查，以分析它们获得银行贷款的情况。受信贷限制的中小企业被劝阻的可能性是被拒绝的可能性的六倍。被拒的最主要的原因是抵押品要求太高，申请程序繁琐，以及被拒绝的期望。通过瑞士银行市场的一个独特特征，我们还发现了新的证据来证明牢固的公司与银行关系的重要性。我们挑战不鼓励借款人与被拒绝借款人非常相似的假设。我们的结果表明，与被拒绝的借款人相比，受阻借款人组与被拒绝借款人组更相似，但仅在公司特征方面。对于描述业务发展和公司-银行关系的变量，与不受限制的同行相比，受挫的中小企业与信贷受限的企业的共同点更少。即使采用保守的预测，如果申请银行贷款，大约 60% 的受挫企业也会获得银行贷款。因此观察到的自我配给机制效率很低，银行和政策制定者应该思考如何培养中小企业申请所需银行贷款的勇气。