however it can also raise the cost of some policies and cause dependency on public policy support the first case was especially evident in the case of financing policies where the cheapest schemes for client firms in terms of interest rate and credit conditions were those directly managed by sedecos without drawing on any further external organisation as the sme fund s rules are getting more complicated over time entry barriers to the use of the fund are on the rise this holds back competition to the advantage of consolidated intermediaries who already master the fund s mechanisms and who can apply higher administrative charges on their programmes in the long term this may cause dependency on public support for some intermediaries who draw more than others on the fund