Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are major contributors to most western economies. They are often supported by government policies, and in the UK the government encourages banks to lend to them. It is generally believed that the credit crunch has had an impact on the performance of...

Traditionally, accept/reject decisions in consumer credit are based on credit scoring models empirically derived for a specific country/portfolio. Yet with the progress in E.U. integration lenders are faced with the necessity to assess the risk of multinational credit applicants which will...