US Exim Bank and its Italian counterpart, Sace, have signed a co-financing agreement that will facilitate export transactions involving companies in both the US and Italy.
The agreement will enable Exim and Sace to provide one-stop trade-finance services to buyers in third countries purchasing both US and Italian goods and services. The two nations’ export credit agencies (ECAs) will share risk under one financing package, creating administrative efficiencies for foreign buyers. The ECA whose exporter is the principal contractor will take the lead in providing export credit support, while the other ECA whose exporter is a subcontractor or secondary contractor will provide reinsurance for their portion of the transaction to the lead ECA.

This is the third co-financing agreement that Ex-Im has concluded, but its first with an ECA whose principal business is providing export credit insurance. The bank’s first two agreements, signed in 2001, were with the Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD) of the UK and the Export Development Corporation (EDC) of Canada. Sace has concluded 16 other co-financing agreements.

Several co-financed transactions that could benefit from this agreement are already under discussion. In addition, the agreement is likely to assist US and Italian companies that will participate in an April 28 conference in Rome on providing goods and services for the reconstruction of Iraq. This conference will be sponsored by the Confederation of Italian Industries (Confindustria) together with the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade (ICE), under the aegis of the ministry of productive activities and the ministry of foreign affairs.