EXIM Revises Short-Term Insurance Products to Provide Small Businesses With Enhanced Financing Flexibility

WASHINGTON, June 10 -- The Export-Import Bank of the U.S. issued the following news release:

The Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) has revised key features of two short-term export credit insurance products that will provide U.S. exporters and financial institutions additional options designed to streamline the application process and enhance the customer experience.

Although plans for these measures were underway before the onset of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, the export credit insurance revisions will work alongside EXIM's COVID-19 relief measures by providing small businesses with additional financing opportunities. Nearly 90 percent of EXIM's authorizations directly support small businesses.

"As we come together to focus on America's economic comeback, EXIM's actions to improve standards and options will provide greater transparency in key features of our export credit insurance products (https://www.exim.gov/what-we-do/export-credit-insurance/), as well as further ongoing efforts to assist exporters with flexible financing solutions during this very challenging economic period," said EXIM President and Chairman Kimberly A. Reed. "These changes are particularly important for our nation's small businesses, and EXIM proudly stands with them as they continue to support U.S. jobs through the export of their 'Made in the USA' goods and services to the global marketplace."

Short-Term Credit Standards

Short-Term Credit Standards (STCS) provide an overview of the standard credit information requirements EXIM needs to consider applications. The new STCS, which reflect input received from EXIM insurance brokers, has been developed to increase transparency and reduce standard documentation requirements to improve the customer experience.

The STCS changes, which took effect May 1, 2020, include:

* Increasing credit limit thresholds, which streamlines the application process by reducing the documentation customers need to provide.

* Expanding the STCS overview tool, which is available on EXIM's website (https://www.exim.gov/sites/default/files/forms/Short-Term-Credit-Standards-Latest_Revised_5.7.2020.pdf), to include more information designed to help customers find the best short-term insurance product for their needs.

As part of the agency's ongoing learning resources (https://www.exim.gov/learning-resources), EXIM hosted a webinar outlining these changes, which can be viewed here (https://www.exim.gov/learning-resources/video-gallery/revised-short-term-credit-standards).

Multi-Buyer Select Risk Insurance

The short-term insurance product formerly known as Reasonable Spread of Risk (RSOR) is now known as Multi-Buyer Select Risk (MBSR) to more clearly reflect the purpose of this insurance policy. MBSR offers a solution for customers seeking multi-buyer coverage (https://grow.exim.gov/blog/mbsr) for only part of their export credit portfolio, and EXIM provides a worksheet to help calculate the eligible portion of their sales.

For more information about the MBSR policy options, contact an EXIM registered broker (https://www.exim.gov/tools-for-exporters/broker-and-lender-locator) or an EXIM trade finance specialist (https://grow.exim.gov/consultationrequest) who can answer questions.

"Our export credit insurance team is listening keenly to the exporter community," said EXIM Chief Banking Officer Stephen Renna. "These product improvements are a response to what they are hearing. Our goal is to provide American businesses with the tools needed to support their export initiatives."

For more information about EXIM's COVID-19 response, please see the Coronavirus Response webpage (https://www.exim.gov/coronavirus-response).

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ABOUT EXIM:

EXIM is an independent federal agency that promotes and supports American jobs by providing competitive and necessary export credit to support sales of U.S. goods and services to international buyers. A robust EXIM can level the global playing field for U.S. exporters when they compete against foreign companies that receive support from their governments. EXIM also contributes to U.S. economic growth by helping to create and sustain hundreds of thousands of jobs in exporting businesses and their supply chains across the United States. In recent years, approximately 90 percent of the total number of the agency's authorizations has directly supported small businesses. Since 1992, EXIM has generated more than $9 billion for the U.S. Treasury for repayment of U.S. debt.