Unlocking SME Financing for
European Competitiveness
DEUSS Project Launch & INATBA 7th Anniversary · Brussels
On 30 June, BlackVogel led in the DEUSS Project Official Launch and the INATBA 7th Anniversary at TheMerode in Brussels, contributing to the morning programme Unlocking SME Financing for European Competitiveness.
Designed and organised by BlackVogel on behalf of INATBA, the session brought together policymakers from the European Commission, financial market infrastructures, digital finance providers, SME representatives, and industry leaders to examine one of Europe’s most persistent structural challenges: how to translate Europe’s regulatory ambitions into financing pathways that actually work for innovative SMEs.
Our CEO, Mariana de la Roche Wills, designed and moderated the two expert panels exploring both the financing realities faced by European SMEs today and the operational challenges that still prevent digital finance from becoming a scalable financing channel across the European Union.
The session was structured as two panels. The first, The SME Financing Gap: Market Realities, brought Mariana together with Armando Melone (European Commission), Jan Klesla (DEUSS), Johannes Schmitt (NYALA), Pablo Portugal (Euroclear), and Simona Amati (SMEunited). The second, From Framework to Pathway: Standardisation and Cross-Border Integration, brought her together with Alessandro Fuser (Crypto Finance Group), Fabian Rzadkowski (European Commission), Justine Bieliauskaite (European DIGITAL SME Alliance), and Miguel Vaz (Hauck Aufhäuser Digital Custody).
What We Discussed
The discussions followed a clear progression. The first panel focused on the financing gap itself: where SMEs currently obtain capital, why private investment remains insufficient, and what structural barriers continue to limit European competitiveness.
The second panel moved beyond regulation to examine how digital finance, tokenisation, and cross-border standards can create practical financing pathways capable of supporting Europe’s innovation economy.
Throughout the day, one recurring theme emerged: Europe has developed increasingly sophisticated regulatory frameworks, but frameworks alone cannot deliver competitiveness. Infrastructure, interoperability, execution, and trust remain equally important.
The SME Financing Gap: Market Realities
The discussion opened with the reality described in the Draghi Report: Europe faces an estimated €800 billion annual investment gap if it wants to remain globally competitive. Participants agreed that the challenge is no longer one of available capital, but of deploying it efficiently.
Several themes emerged:
Private capital must play a significantly larger role.
Public funding alone cannot close Europe’s financing gap. Mobilising institutional and private investment has become essential for supporting innovation-driven SMEs.
Europe needs SME-first policy design.
Rather than adapting legislation designed for large institutions, participants argued that regulatory frameworks should be designed around SMEs from the outset and scale upwards where necessary.
Alternative financing channels are becoming increasingly important.
Digital finance infrastructure, tokenisation, and non-traditional market participants are beginning to reshape SME financing alongside conventional banking models.
Pension funds remain an underutilised source of capital.
Several speakers highlighted the need to revisit structural barriers that discourage long-term institutional investment into European growth companies.
From Framework to Pathway:
Standardisation and Cross-Border Integration
The second panel explored why Europe’s expanding digital finance framework has not yet translated into meaningful financing opportunities for SMEs.
The conversation highlighted several priorities:
Standardisation is becoming the next critical challenge.
Technical interoperability alone is insufficient. Legal, operational, and governance standards must evolve together if tokenised markets are to scale.
Tokenisation requires investable market structures.
Issuing tokenised assets is only one step. Creating products that institutional investors can realistically allocate capital towards remains a larger challenge.
Digital assets require new approaches to collateral and value creation.
Participants discussed the growing relevance of intellectual property, data, and other intangible assets within future financing models.
Evidence-based policymaking matters.
Research, market data, and measurable outcomes should increasingly inform both regulation and investment decisions.
Trust remains the foundation of financial infrastructure.
Rather than eliminating intermediaries, digital finance is reshaping their role around transparency, governance, and confidence.
The Bottom Line
The conversations in Brussels reflected a broader shift taking place across European digital finance.
The question is no longer whether Europe should support innovation-driven SMEs through digital finance, tokenisation, and new market infrastructure. The question is how quickly institutions, regulators, and industry can move from frameworks on paper to systems that function in practice.
Across every discussion, the same conclusion emerged: competitiveness depends as much on execution as it does on regulation. Building financing pathways requires coordinated work across policy, infrastructure, standards, and market participants.
At BlackVogel, we continue working at this intersection, helping institutions, policymakers, and industry navigate the practical challenges of digital finance, regulatory implementation, and cross-border innovation.
Key Takeaways
Europe’s challenge is no longer regulation. It is execution.
The regulatory foundations exist. The next phase depends on operational infrastructure, market coordination, and implementation that works in practice.
Standardisation is becoming the next strategic priority.
Tokenised markets cannot scale without common legal, operational, and technical standards that enable interoperability across jurisdictions.
Evidence should drive both policy and investment.
Better data, better research, and measurable outcomes are essential for designing regulation and allocating capital effectively.
SME financing requires a structural rethink.
Closing Europe’s financing gap will depend on mobilising private capital, designing SME-first policy, and expanding access to new financing channels beyond traditional banking.
Digital finance is only as strong as the trust behind it.
Market infrastructure, reliable data, and trusted intermediaries remain fundamental to building confidence in new financial models.
Europe’s competitiveness depends on collaboration.
The future of SME financing will be shaped through closer cooperation between policymakers, regulators, financial institutions, infrastructure providers, and innovators.
The conversations in Brussels reinforced one clear message: Europe’s future competitiveness will not be determined by regulation alone, but by its ability to turn frameworks into functioning markets. That is exactly where BlackVogel continues to work.