The new Basel Capital Accord and the EU’s Capital Adequacy Directive have sparked concerns that higher capital charges will further curb lending to SMEs. In this respect, the new regulatory banking framework could also worsen the effects of the long payment delays which typically undermine SMEs’ commercial transactions. In fact, cash imbalances due to late payments might cast additional doubt on small firms’ creditiworthiness and, as a consequence, hamper their access to credit. These and other critical aspects were thoroughly debated at this CEPS roundtable co-hosted by Intrum Justicia on 30 November 2004.