. but even these markets remain small relative to the size of their economies ( graph 12 ). 13 / 17 bis central bankers'speeches marketplace lending platforms provide debt funding by matching individuals or groups of lenders with borrowers. these platforms typically target personal and small business borrowers with low credit risk by attempting to offer lower cost lending products and more flexible lending conditions than traditional lenders. data collected by the australian securities and investments commission indicate that most marketplace lending in australia is for relatively small loans to consumers at interest rates comparable to personal loans offered by banks ( graph 13 ). 14 / 17 bis central bankers'speeches it is unclear whether marketplace lending platforms are significantly reducing financial constraints for small businesses. unlike innovations such as comprehensive credit reporting, which have the potential to improve the credit risk assessment process, marketplace lenders do not have an information advantage over traditional lenders. as a result, they need to manage risks with prices and terms in line with traditional lenders. 14 nevertheless, these platforms could provide some competition to traditional lenders, particularly as a source of unsecured short - term finance, since they process applications quickly and offer rates below those on credit cards. crowdfunding platforms have the potential to make financing more accessible for start - up businesses, although their use has been limited to date. crowdsourced equity funding platforms typically involve a large number of investors taking a small equity stake in a business. as a result, entrepreneurs can receive finance without having to give up as much control as expected by venture capitalists. 15 several legislative changes have been made to facilitate growth in these markets, including by allowing small unlisted public companies to raise crowdsourced equity. conclusion the provision of external finance to australian businesses is dominated by the banks. funding from that source has generally become available on increasingly favourable terms for large borrowers over recent years. even so, much of business investment is financed from internally generated funds, while growth in business debt is more closely related to mergers and acquisitions activity, which has remained relatively modest compared with levels seen before the global financial crisis. entrepreneurs starting or expanding a small business are typically more reliant on external finance, which remains difficult to obtain. lending to small businesses is dominated by the major banks and, there is less competition in this market. interest rates paid by small businesses are also much higher than those paid by large businesses ; it ’ s not clear the extent to which this 15 / 17 bis central bankers'speeches difference reflects the greater risk involved in

declined. between then and early november, the exchange rate depreciated by around 5 per cent in tradeweighted terms and against the us dollar. it is reasonable to attribute the bulk of this depreciation to the growing expectation of the package announced in november. longer - term yields have risen a little since the november board meeting as has the exchange rate, largely due to the news about vaccines. but i would argue they are both lower than they would be absent the november policy package. https : / / www. rba. gov. au / speeches / 2020 / sp - dg - 2020 - 11 - 24. html 11 / 14 11 / 24 / 2020 monetary policy in 2020 | speeches | rba graph 8 10 - year australian government bond spreads australian yield minus select international bond yields bps bps uk canada nz us - 50 - 50 - 100 - 100 j f m a m j j a s o n d sources : bloomberg ; yieldbroker let me remind you briefly about how the bond purchases occur. the bond purchase program comprises $ 80 billion of ags and $ 20 billion of semis. any purchases to maintain the 3 - year yield target will be in addition to this. the bank buys bonds in the secondary market. we announce our intentions at 11. 15 am on mondays and thursdays for the australian government bond auctions, both for the 3 - year target and the ags bond purchase program ( though this does not completely preclude purchasing bonds for the 3 - year target on other days if necessary ), and on wednesdays for the semis bond purchase program. the bond purchase program comprises bonds beyond the 3 - year yield target up to the longest maturity in the 10 - year futures basket. we alternate purchases between the shorter and longer end of that maturity spectrum. the semis are purchased across 3 auctions with the aim of buying broadly in line with the size of their respective bond programs. in the afternoon, we take bids in a 5 - minute window on the auction platform. we accept the bids that are cheapest relative to the mid - market price for the relevant bond. this determines the final composition of the bonds we purchase each auction, with the caveat that for the states we aim to achieve an overall allocation across the purchase program broadly consistent with the size of their bond programs. we aim to exclude bond lines from the weekly auctions that are being tapped in the same week or are recently issued new bonds. the results of