The ECB's SAFE survey polls thousands of euro-area enterprises, overwhelmingly SMEs, every quarter about their financing: whether bank credit is available, at what price, and what firms expect next. It is the closest thing to a live dashboard of SME lending conditions in Europe.
We use it two ways with clients. As context: when the survey shows conditions tightening, start refinancing conversations earlier and expect more collateral questions. And as a mirror: banks read the same data, so a financing request backed by current reporting and a credible cash forecast stands out precisely when everyone else's numbers get vaguer.