European corporates speaking at GTR‘s Europe Trade and Export Finance Conference in Hamburg are moving away from ECA cover only and resorting to private insurance more and more, due to the growing complexity of deal structures. GTR catches up with exporters, insurers and ECAs to assess the state of the market.

Collaboration was one of the key topics discussed at the event: now that the private insurance sector has returned to pre-crisis capacity levels, export credit agencies (ECAs) are involved in fewer export deals.

Kai Gieselmann, head of export finance and credit management at farm machinery producer Claas KGaA GmnH, said: “For short-term cover in mature markets in Europe we have been using short-term products from private insurers; for emerging markets in the past typically we have used a lot of ECA cover. In the last year it changed a lot, and we are now using private risk insurance more and more even for emerging markets.

“One reason is, with the growth of the international production network, for ECAs it’s not always easy to find the products of the right origins, so in that situation we tend to use private risk insurance because it’s more flexible and in that respect easier to structure.”