As seen in Figure 1, the cost of small
loans in Spain is still very high compared to
its European peers. While the spread
between German and Spanish bonds is
around 200 basis points, the spread between
credit to small and medium sized companies
in Spain and Germany is near 500 basis
points. After implementing capital
requirements, Spanish banks have been wont
to extend loans of any type for fear of
increasing their liabilities to unsustainable
levels. Spanish banks have been
additionally wary of loaning to small and
medium sized businesses because of riskweighted
capital requirements. While loans to
the Spanish government carries a low riskweight,
loans to small businesses are weighted
much more, thereby increasing the capital
requirements.49 Now, growing small businesses
cannot receive credit from banks at any rate, and
are forced to look to European and American
investment firms lending at a rate nearly 500
basis points higher than Spanish banks were
before the crisis.