Export Credit Insurance
Help protect your foreign receivables while continuing to provide attractive open credit terms to your international customers.
What is Export Credit Insurance?
In the world of international trade, exporters are often asked to offer extended credit terms to foreign buyers – commonly 30 to 60 days after shipment. Export Credit Insurance can help protect your business from international buyers’ poor credit history or any instability of the importing country.
Benefits of Export Credit Coverage
Export Credit Insurance allows you to:
- Gain a competitive edge over your competition by providing attractive open credit terms to international buyers
- Mitigate risk of non-payment
- Access working capital by including foreign accounts receivable in a borrowing base
- Increase customer/country sales activities
Expanded Sales
By using Export Credit Insurance, you can comfortably offer extended payment terms to buyers. This serves as an alternative to requiring cash in advance or letters of credit. Securing Export Credit Insurance helps you stay competitive with other companies willing to extend credit terms. In many cases, the insurance policy will also allow you to sell to customers and countries that are normally beyond your risk threshold, helping to grow your sales.
Risk Protection
Your accounts receivable are an asset, and like all other assets, it is prudent to have them insured. M&T Bank can help you arrange protection from the risks associated with exporting to foreign countries with political and commercial instability.
Access to Working Capital
Insured foreign accounts receivable make excellent collateral. M&T Bank helps exporters by lending against these assets, giving you access to the working capital your company needs.
Understanding Your Options
An experienced M&T Bank professional can recommend Export Credit Insurance options offered by the Export-Import Bank of the United States and private insurance companies to best address your specific needs.
Policy Flexibility
Policies exist for small and large exporters doing business with just one or many foreign buyers. M&T’s professionals will be happy to work with you to find the best policy for your needs.
Customer Spotlight
See how M&T Bank helped an animal feed company in central Pennsylvania to avoid potential loss of business due to its inability to offer credit terms to international customers.
The Situation
The company’s foreign buyer did not have the working capital to pay for its purchases up front. This made it necessary for the buyer to find an exporter willing to extend credit terms. The feed company needed to reduce the risk of non-payment from the buyer and protect against adverse political conditions in that country.
The M&T Approach
M&T’s professionals helped find the most comprehensive and cost-effective export credit insurance policy for the company. The newly insured receivable became collateral for a new line of credit.
The Results
After working with M&T’s International Trade Finance Group, the company was able to:
- Offer extended credit terms to its buyer, making the feed company competitive and enabling its buyer to purchase larger amounts of feed
- Remove the non-payment risks associated with the buyer and the buyer’s country
- Gain immediate access to its money, thanks to M&T Bank lending against the foreign account receivable