EFAA

Press release                                                                                                                                              For immediate release

Keeping healthy business free from global infection

Brussels, 14 October 2008 (for immediate release). The European Federation of Accountants and Auditors (EFAA) is Europe's leading accountancy organisation dedicated solely to the needs of small and medium-sized businesses within the EU and Europe as a whole.

At a meeting in Stockholm on 10 October, EFAA President Federico Diomeda said: "EFAA is clearly not alone in its concern regarding the present liquidity problems facing the global banking sector. The SME community in Europe relies heavily upon banks for the provision of much of the capital employed within the sector. It is essential that this capital continues to remain available." It will be appreciated that SMEs employ most of the workforce within Europe and that these small and medium-sized enterprises account for some 53% of all production in the region. "EFAA believes that the commitment of its constituents to their local economies will be of crucial importance as the multi-national corporations' reliance upon global capital flows appears to be increasingly uncertain", he continued. "It is likely that our region's dependence upon local provision of goods, services and employment will increase. The need for adequate capital to support expected growth in the sector is essential."

EFAA fully recognises that the banking system has achieved a position of being an important public utility which will require increased and rigorous regulation in light of the accepted failure of current practices. We fully support concerted international efforts to relieve present difficulties.

EFAA calls upon the EU Member States and all appropriate authorities to ensure that strict conditions are imposed upon the recipients of the huge sums of public money to the effect that there is absolute assurance that the public interest will be protected by a firm commitment that adequate funds will continue to be made available to the SME communities by the banks.

"It may be worth pointing out that neither jobs nor the capital involved in SME activity are easily portable to other economic regions of the world and that investment in the SME sector at this time will have a highly stabilising effect", concluded Mr Diomeda.

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Editor's notes: EFAA, the European Federation of Accountants and Auditors for small and medium-sized enterprises, is the umbrella organisation for national accountants and auditors' organisations whose individual members provide professional services primarily to SMEs. EFAA has 13 members throughout Europe representing over 200,000 accountants and auditors. Further information at http://www.efaa.com/

For further information, please contact:

Marion Cugnet - T: +32 (0)2 736 88 86, Email: marion.cugnet@efaa.com