Export-Import Bank of the United States (US Ex-Im) has adopted new guidelines to improve the bank's transparency and effectiveness of its due diligence policies.
The guidelines reflect the growing importance of 'know-your-customer" issues in ensuring projects are creditworthy and carried out legitimately.
"Our experience has helped us identify due diligence best practices," explains US Ex-Im Bank chairman and president James Lambright.
"These guidelines are intended to provide a framework for effective due diligence by our transaction partners, which, when undertaken, should decrease the bank’s transaction processing time and increase likelihood of approval,” he adds.
The bank has maintained a historical portfolio loss rate of less than 2%, which compared favourably to the loss rates for many commercial banks. Over the past 15 years, the bank has also generated a net positive return for the taxpayer of US$4bn.
However, despite these achievements the bank has uncovered instances of fraud in its portfolio and is continuing to establish improved procedures to spot these issues and prevent losses.
Last Updated January 18, 2008
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