ACCESSING FINANCE is particularly difficult for aspiring entrepreneurs with no track record or collateral. This is where microfinance comes in.

First Step is the only microfinance specialist in Ireland, providing loans of up to €25,000 to people hoping to set up a business but who can't get funding from a mainstream institution.

First Step fills a gap in the market where banks, for commercial reasons, are loath to tread. "They don't want to get involved in a proliferation of small business loans," says First Step chief executive John Cranfield, "because it's too costly for them to run.

"There are good commercial reasons why the banks are doing that, but they're upping the standards of their lending criteria all the time and, by doing that, they're excluding more and more people."

Many foreign nationals arriving in Ireland in the hopes of starting their own business find themselves excluded by traditional lenders. "They've no bank account, they've no track record, they've no collateral, so what chance have they got? It's very difficult," Cranfield says. "So we're doing a lot of funding for immigrants."

Last year, the Social Finance Foundation was established using funding of €25 million provided by the banking sector through the Irish Banking Federation. Cranfield says the foundation acts as a "wholesaler to the likes of First Step" and funds their activities. "So the funding that we get comes from the banks," he says. "Why? Because we're satisfying a sector that they don't really want to get involved in."

For more details, see www.first-step.ie .