Abstract
A key challenge for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to access finance in many countries is that financial services laws make it costly and inefficient for financial institutions to accept anything other land and buildings as collateral for loans. This particularly excludes SMEs from accessing finance because they are less likely to hold secure title to such assets. A "secured transaction reform" (STR) can create a new legal framewok that removes these barriers to financing for SMEs, expanding the ist of acceptable collateral to include movable collateral such as vehicles, inventory, equipment, and receivables. We evaluate the impacts of an STR in Fiji using a randomized encouragement design. The evaluation will measure immediate outcomes of the reform such as the number of businesses getting access to credit, and the amount of credit that businesses access. It will also measure ‘downstream’ outcomes such as investment in assets and labor, revenue, profitability, and creation of new businesses. The findings will assist governments around the world in designing similar reforms to improve SMEs’ access to credit and support private sector development.