"Determinants of Lending to Small and Medium Enterprises By Commercial Banks in Jordan"

Abstract

The topic of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and their financing is an important topic of concern to researchers and economists alike, as they are of great importance to economic development and the development of societies. SMEs rely on commercial banks as the main source of finance, but commercial banks still believe that some of these Projects do not deserve lending for fear that they will not meet banking requirements. Hence, the object of this study was to investigate sum of financial and market determinants that affect bank lending to SMEs in Jordan during the period 2014-2018.
To achieve the study objectives, the study examined these determinants as independent variables: bank size, bank liquidity, level of competitiveness, loan ratio for deposits, interest rate and risk. And tested the impact of these variables on the dependent variable, the volume of loans granted to SMEs relative to total bank loans.
The study used descriptive statistics to describe the study variables and the common regression analysis method to test the study hypotheses. The study found that the variables of the size of the bank and the ratio of loans to deposits adversely affect and reduce the size of loans, and that the amount of liquidity of the bank and interest rate positively affect and increase the volume of loans granted.
The study recommends that lending to SMEs by commercial banks in Jordan be enhanced by adopting policies that grow the commercial banks; it also recommends that decision makers use their findings as a tool to rationalize their decisions.