Abstract
This article considered the problem of determining the creditworthiness of an enterprise operating in the field of trade and services. The assessment of the creditworthiness of borrowers, particularly small businesses, needs to be more careful: the level of development of small enterprises and their specific activities must be considered, as well as the uncertainty in obtaining any financial result. A method for assessing the creditworthiness of enterprises (trade and services) is proposed, based on the use of the mathematical apparatus of the theory of fuzzy sets. This article analyzes the indicators of industry and regional specifics, indicators of the activity of a small enterprise, and financial and economic indicators typical for the service sector and trade. The rules on the basis of which decisions are made are formed in the form of logical formulas containing parameters. In its most general form, one parameter is predicted, called the creditworthiness index, which varies from 0 to 1 and has a natural interpretation. On the basis of the proposed method, examples of calculating the assessment of the creditworthiness of enterprises operating in the field of trade and services are given. The proposed scientific approach can be used as a basis for creating expert decision support systems for lending to small businesses.