Singer, DorotheBeck, ThorstenDemirgüç-Kunt, Asli2012-03-192012-03-192011-09-01https://hdl.handle.net/10986/3569Combining two unique data sets, this paper explores the relationship between the relative importance of different financial institutions and their average size and firms' access to financial services. Specifically, the authors explore the relationship between the share in total financial assets and average asset size of banks, low-end financial institutions, and specialized lenders, on the one hand, and firms' access to and use of deposit and lending services, on the other hand. Two findings stand out. First, the dominance of banks in most developing and emerging markets is associated with lower use of financial services by firms of all sizes. Low-end financial institutions and specialized lenders seem particularly suited to ease access to finance in low-income countries. Second, there is no evidence that smaller institutions are better in providing access to finance. To the contrary, larger specialized lenders and larger banks might actually ease small firms' financing constraints, but only at low levels of gross domestic product per capita.CC BY 3.0 IGOACCESS INDICATORSACCESS TO CREDITACCESS TO EXTERNAL FINANCEACCESS TO FINANCEACCESS TO FINANCIAL SERVICESADVANCED ECONOMIESALTERNATIVE FINANCINGBANK ASSETSBANKING SECTORBANKING SECTOR STABILITYBANKSBUILDING SOCIETIESCAPITAL ALLOCATIONCAPITAL REQUIREMENTSCASH FLOWSCOMMERCIAL BANKCOMMERCIAL BANKSCOMMUNITY BANKINGCOMMUNITY BANKSCONSOLIDATIONCOOPERATIVESCREDIT UNIONSCURRENCY UNITSDEPOSITDEVELOPING COUNTRIESDEVELOPMENT BANKDEVELOPMENT CORPORATIONDIVERSIFICATIONDUMMY VARIABLEDUMMY VARIABLESECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTECONOMICSEMERGING MARKETEMERGING MARKET COUNTRIESEMERGING MARKETSENTRY BARRIERSEXCHANGE RATESEXTERNAL FINANCEEXTERNAL FINANCINGFACTORINGFINANCE ACCESSFINANCE COMPANIESFINANCIAL ACCESSFINANCIAL ASSETSFINANCIAL DEVELOPMENTFINANCIAL ECONOMICSFINANCIAL HISTORYFINANCIAL INSTITUTIONFINANCIAL INSTITUTIONSFINANCIAL INTERMEDIATIONFINANCIAL PRODUCTSFINANCIAL SECTOR ASSESSMENTFINANCIAL SECTOR INDICATORFINANCIAL SECTOR INDICATORSFINANCIAL SERVICEFINANCIAL STRUCTUREFINANCIAL SYSTEMFINANCIAL SYSTEMSFINANCING NEEDSFINANCING OBSTACLESFIRM SIZEFIRM SIZESFIRMSFOREIGN INVESTORFOREIGN INVESTORSGOVERNMENT OWNERSHIPGROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCTGROUP LENDINGHOUSINGINSURANCEINSURANCE COMPANIESINTERNATIONAL BANKINTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL STATISTICSLARGE ENTERPRISESLEASINGLEGAL CONSTRAINTSLENDERSLENDING TECHNIQUESLIMITED ACCESSLINE OF CREDITLOANLOCAL CURRENCYLOCAL MARKETMARKET STRUCTUREMARKET STRUCTURESMEDIUM ENTERPRISESMERCHANTMERCHANT BANKSMICRO-FINANCEMICROFINANCEMICROFINANCE INSTITUTIONSMINIMUM CAPITAL REQUIREMENTSNBFINBFISNON-BANKNONBANK INSTITUTIONSOUTREACHOVERDRAFTOVERDRAFT FACILITIESOVERDRAFT FACILITYOVERDRAFTSPENSIONPENSION FUNDSPOSTAL BANKSPRIVATE BANKSRISK MANAGEMENTRISK MANAGEMENT SYSTEMSRURAL BANKSSAVINGSSHARE OF BANK ASSETSSMALL BANKSSMALL BUSINESSSMALL ENTERPRISESSMALL FIRMSSMESME FINANCESME FINANCINGSME LENDINGSPECIAL CREDITSPECIAL CREDIT INSTITUTIONSSPECIALIZED BANKSSUBSIDIARIESSUBSIDIARYTRANSACTIONUNDERLYING ASSETSWorld Bank10.1596/1813-9450-5806