Non-Bank Financial Intermediation as an Alternative to Traditional Banking for New Business Creation

Growing financial innovation has led to the expansion of non-bank financial intermediation (NBFI) as a key ingredient for new entrepreneurs dealing with limited access to traditional finance. In this study, we seek to identify the effect of NBFI’s development on new business creation, in contrast to that of traditional banking. To this end, we examine a panel of 21 European countries over the period 2006–2021 using two-way fixed-effects panel regression models and annual data drawn from several publicly available databases. We employ two alternative measures of entrepreneurship: total early-stage entrepreneurship, which includes both formal and informal entrepreneurship, and new business registration, which captures formal businesses only. The results indicate that the development of NBFI matters more for informal entrepreneurship, while traditional banking is more relevant to businesses operating in the formal sector. This finding is particularly evident in the period after 2017, which coincides with the consolidation of Basel III standards in Europe. Informal entrepreneurs may rely primarily on informal sources of finance in the early stages of business creation and turn to traditional banks only later, as their businesses become formalised. Moreover, new business creation occurs mainly when the two financial intermediaries act more as complements rather than substitutes.