Financial Technology,Bank Competition And SME Financing Constraints

As an important part of the national economy,small and mediumsized enterprises(SMEs)have made significant contributions to solving employment,increasing tax revenue,and promoting economic development.Ensuring the sustainable development of SMEs is of great significance for social stability and sustainable economic development.However,one of the fundamental reasons limiting the development of SMEs is financing difficulties,and the shortage of funds has become the primary issue hindering their development.These difficulties stem from internal factors such as weak collateral capabilities and insufficient transparency of financial information,as well as external factors such as low levels of financial innovation and inadequate financial supply.Moreover,under the impact of the pandemic,the overall economic environment has not fully recovered,which has also significantly squeezed the financing space for SMEs.How to alleviate the financing constraints of SMEs has become one of the urgent issues to be addressed in national development.Fintech,based on scientific and technological innovation,has triggered changes in financial markets and institutions with its innovative business models,applications,and products.On the one hand,the development of fintech promotes the further integration of finance and informatization,providing new possibilities for the breadth of information collection and the speed of information processing by financial institutions,which helps to further reduce information asymmetry between them and enterprises.On the other hand,the continuous development of fintech has changed the competitive environment of the banking industry,bringing new opportunities for SMEs to obtain credit supply.In summary,the development of fintech provides a new direction for alleviating the financing constraints of SMEs by reducing information asymmetry between banks and enterprises and promoting bank competition.Based on the above background,this article discusses how fintech affects the financing constraints of SMEs and the mechanisms at play.Firstly,a sample of SMEs listed on the original Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Board in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration from2011 to 2020 was selected,and the proxy variable for fintech was the citylevel fintech index constructed based on data from Ant Financial Services Group.The degree of bank competition was measured by constructing a bank competition index.After determining the observation indicators of the main variables,a fixed-effects model was established to empirically analyze the impact of fintech on the financing constraints of SMEs and whether there is a transmission path mediated by bank competition.The research found that fintech significantly alleviates the financing constraints of SMEs.Furthermore,by adopting a "mediation effect" causal analysis model to explore its mechanism,a mechanism mediated by bank competition was identified.It was concluded that fintech can not only alleviate the financing constraints of SMEs by empowering investment and financing platforms and reducing information asymmetry between banks and enterprises but also affect the financing constraints of SMEs by intensifying bank competition.Therefore,supporting the healthy development of fintech and guiding financial institutions to correctly apply fintech has far-reaching significance for alleviating the financing constraints of SMEs.