(BPIFrance, Paris) This Bpifrance web page explains how national ECAs can cooperate to support projects involving exports from several countries, thus enhancing official ECA “subsidies” for corporate exporters. “Bpifrance Assurance Export interacts regularly with foreign export credit agencies at General Meetings and seminars of the Bern Union or at bilateral meetings, in the interest of exchanging and sharing best practices and expanding cooperation. With the internationalisation of production systems and increasingly frequent use of foreign sub contractors and providers, a single project can involve exports from several countries. For that reason, export support agencies have developed several forms of cooperation (joint insurance, co insurance, reinsurance) aimed at serving French exporters involved in a given project or contract in a third country. Thus, when certain contracts include a significant foreign content that make them ineligible for State support, insurance can be obtained through one of these mechanisms. Bpifrance Assurance Export has signed framework agreements with the majority of its peers. Where it does not already have a framework agreement with a given partner, a cooperation agreement may be entered into on a special purpose basis. Reinsurance is the most common form of cooperation used today.
Newsletter
EXIM plans aggressive marketing push and steady market growth
(Reuters, Washington, 7 July 2022) The U.S. Export-Import Bank plans “aggressive” measures to restore its standing in the business community and to bump up credit volumes running at roughly a quarter of their levels from 2014 before it was hobbled first by Congress and then a global pandemic. In that span, EXIM faded in the minds of customers and foreign governments – and many simply never got to know it. Export-Import Bank President Reta Jo Lewis told Reuters. Republicans in Congress in July 2015 sought to permanently shutter EXIM, charging it was providing “corporate welfare” through cheap export financing for Boeing, General Electric, Caterpillar and other corporate giants. Its charter was restored after 4 months, but Republicans blocked EXIM board nominees for 4 more years, limiting it to loans of $10 million or less and shutting it out of the market for aircraft and major infrastructure projects. During the void, GE was among U.S. firms that turned elsewhere, agreeing in 2015 to move manufacturing of oilfield gas generator engines to Canada from Wisconsin, in a deal to access Canadian export financing. Meanwhile, China has continued to dwarf EXIM’s efforts, providing $11 billion in official medium and long-term export credit in 2021, compared with $2.2 billion for the United States, according to EXIM’s annual competitiveness report.
OECD export credit rule changes could have long-term consequences for insurers
(InsuranceDay, London, 4 July 2022) On November 5 2021, the OECD announced the minimum down payment requirement for the Arrangement would be cut from 15% to 5% for sovereign borrowers in developing markets.The change, which was implemented temporaryily for 12 months, stoked private market concerns that the impact on insurers could be longer term. Under the previous arrangement, official ECAs could only participate on the buyer credit portion of a given transaction, with a stipulation that the down payment portion (typically 15% of the value of the contract) should be provided by the private market. Normally, commercial banks that supply the loans for the down payment often then turn to the credit and political risk insurance market to cover the risk of default. The OECD has said this change is in response to a “clear market failure” caused by the ongoing Covid-19 crisis. In its view, the private sector was “very reluctant or even unwilling” to provide insurance cover for OECD Category II (low- and middle-income) countries, which in turn meant banks were unwilling to finance projects in these developing countries.
G-7 rolls out answer to China’s Belt and Road initiative
(Politico, Washington, 27 June 2022) Biden and other G-7 leaders meeting in Germany on Sunday pledged to provide $600 billion in public and private financing for developing country infrastructure projects over the next five years, in a move aimed at countering China’s growing global economic clout. The United States will “mobilize” $200 billion of the public and private capital for the Partnership for Global Infrastructure (PGII), the G-7’s answer to China’s multitrillion-dollar Belt-and-Road infrastructure initiative that Beijing launched back in 2013. It is not clear what portion of the US $200bn support will come from EXIM.
UK Export Finance provided £7.4 billion in support for UK exports last year
(Yorkshire Post, Leeds, 30 June 2022) British businesses received £7.4bn of Government support last year to help them secure export opportunities in 61 countries, according to the latest report from UK Export Finance (UKEF). The report concluded that finance provided by UKEF in 2021-22 supported 72,000 UK jobs and added a gross value of £4.3bn to the economy. Of those supported by UKEF, 83% were located outside of London and a record 81% were small and medium-sized enterprises, according to the organisation’s annual results. A spokesman said: “The £7.4bn – the highest level for 14 years – brings the total support over the last five years to £33.4bn. While proclaiming “its first year without providing any support for overseas fossil fuel projects”, UKEF continued to promote a stalled US$1.5 billion LNG project in Mozambique following its 2020 backing of the project. As noted in our June 2022 ECA Watch What’s New, between 2018 and 2020, G7 countries provided US$100bn towards oil, gas and coal projects through their export credit agencies (ECAs) or development finance institutions – over four times their contribution towards clean energy.
IISD: Why ECAs must shift from fossil fuel support to clean energy
(IISD, Winnipeg, 30 June 2022) If countries signing on to the COP26 Statement on International Public Support for the Clean Energy Transition shifted their almost US$28 billion/year from fossil fuels to jump-start the energy transition they would more than double their international clean energy finance. All international public finance institutions have yet to substantially scale up their clean energy support to catalyze a globally just energy transition and support energy security in a time of crisis. If the export credit agencies, development finance institutions and government departments of governments signing on to the COP26 Statement on International Public Support for the Clean Energy Transition were to fully redirect their USD 28 billion a year in overseas public finance for oil and gas, they would more than double their international clean energy finance, from USD 18 billion a year to USD 46 billion. As noted in our June 2022 ECA Watch What’s New, between 2018 and 2020, G7 countries provided US$100bn towards oil, gas and coal projects through their export credit agencies (ECAs) or development finance institutions – over four times their contribution towards clean energy. As noted in our June 2022 ECA Watch What’s New, between 2018 and 2020, G7 countries provided US$100bn towards oil, gas and coal projects through their export credit agencies (ECAs) or development finance institutions – over four times their contribution towards clean energy.
Japanese Civil Society welcomes halt of Bangladesh & Indonesian coal projects and Russian LNG project
(JACSES, Tokyo, 22 June 2022) It has been reported that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced to halt Official Development Assistance (ODA) to the Matarbari 2 in Bangladesh and the Indramayu coal-fired power project in Indonesia. Both projects have been strongly criticized internationally with repeated calls for the suspension of support, as they not only exacerbate the climate crisis, but also have a huge impact on the livelihoods of local people. However, in Bangladesh, construction of the Matarbari 1 coal-fired projects which has already been supported by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), has caused unemployment of many local people who made their livelihoods by salt pans and farming shrimp. And delays in compensation payments and alternative housing have made their lives more difficult. There has also been unauthorized reclamation of riverbed due to dumping sediments which was associated with the construction of an access road. These sites and structures were also planned to be used in Matarbari 2. As noted Japan is one of the world’s largest financiers of oil, gas and coal. In addition Japanese ECA JBIC has suspended funding for Russian gas producer Novatek’s major Arctic LNG project, adding yet further strain to a development that has been hard hit by western sanctions.
Russian war on Ukraine triggers conflict over ECAs and African oil
(ECA Watch, Ottawa, 30 June 2022) Sanctions on Russian fossil fuel exports have generated conflict over ECA support for African fossil fuel development. Existing ECA African projects include, for example, UKEF’s reluctance to end discussion of Mozambique’s LNG project, JIBC’s talks with Kuweit’s state oil company and innumerable others. The Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change report called out commercial banks and export credit agencies for the role they are still playing in financing fossil fuel investments. Adding to this pressure, Mary Robinson, ex-UN climate envoy, now says Africa’s need for energy is so great it should be able to widely exploit its fossil fuel deposits. Some back the idea that African gas can be exploited while the EU and developed countries find green alternatives. Others see an African dash for gas as a potential disaster. Nnimmo Bassey and Anabela Lemos state that “far from generating prosperity and stability in sub-Saharan Africa, investments in fossil fuels cause real harm,” noting “Decades of fossil fuel development have failed to deliver energy to much of the continent and have built economic models dependent on extraction that have deepened inequality, caused environmental damage, stoked corruption, and encouraged political repression.”
Danish ECA EKF to back French offshore wind project
KfW IPEX-Bank, together with Crédit Agricole CIB, Banco Santander, S.A., Mizuho Bank, European Investment Bank (EIB), and the Danish Export Credit Agency (EKF), has decided to finance the 30 MW Eoliennes Flottantes du Golfe du Lion (EFGL) floating wind project offshore France. “Fixed offshore wind farms can only be operated economically up to a certain sea depth. Floating wind farms will open up deeper waters. This gives us the opportunity to expand offshore wind power much more and drive the decarbonisation of energy generation faster worldwide”, said Dr Velibor Marjanovic, member of the Management Board of KfW IPEX-Bank. The project, which is one of the world’s first commercially financed floating offshore wind farms, is located in the Mediterranean Sea, more than 16 kilometres offshore from Leucate, Aude, and Le Barcarès, Pyrénées-Orientales. It is scheduled to be commissioned at the end of 2023 and will operate for 20 years.
German export credit for emergency export of Ukranian grain
(Mass News, 13 June 2022) The German government is working to expedite the export of Ukrainian grain by rail, with plans being considered to establish a special fund to pay for the project. To facilitate the creation of a “grain bridge” Berlin is mulling setting up a special fund to purchase wagons as well as providing an export credit guarantee to carriers. Additional assistance could be provided to transfer terminals at the Ukrainian border because the country’s railway network uses a broader gauge than neighboring nations. German officials believe up to 10 million tons of grain could be transported out of Ukraine by rail. Ukraine has lost access to most of its ports after Russian forces took control of several regions in the south of Ukraine.
