Not only Polish small and medium enterprises encounter obstacles in accessing capital to finance their operations. Many French enterprepreneurs point also at these problems as the most difficult to overcome. It is particularly questionable, to finance the establishement of an enterprise and it fast-developing innovation activities. The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Bank - La Banque du Développement des PME (BDPME) - has been established specially and exclusively to serve this sector. The bank is recenty and dynamic. The BDPME group includes the French Society for Financing Guarantees SOFARIS (Société Francaise de Garantie des Financements des Petites et Moyennes Entreprises) and the institution granting credits for equipment - CEPME (Crédit d'Équipement des Petites et Moyennes Entreprises).

The bank offers a wide range of products aimed at the small and medium enterprises sector. The article presents the offer addressed to newly-established enterprises. BDPME main products for entrepreneurs who are starting their business activity are as follows:

• PCE (pret a la création d'entreprises) - a loan to finance an enterprise establishment, BDPME latest operational product.
• guarantees (les garanties),
• equity funds (les fonds propres) - BDPME's investments in the equity of enterprises that are being established,
• contracts (Le Contract de Développement Création), concluded thanks to the cooperation with local authorities.

The bank wins over its customers by selling them a traditional, and therefore the most trusted, way of financing. At the same time the bank provides enterprises with the most recent methods of increasinge their capital.

BDPME fulfills its mission and has filled the gap in the French market related to a lack of banking products designed specifically for small and medium enterprises. The bank is constantly developing, creating new branches and winning over new partners. Its regularly conducted research provides a lot of information on the small and medium enterprises sector in France.