Export Credit Agency Financing Guide
How buyers use ECA cover — from Euler Hermes and SACE to Sinosure, EXIM and UKEF — to unlock long-tenor, low-margin financing on imported industrial equipment.
How ECA financing actually works
The commercial bank lending the money is not taking the buyer's credit risk — the ECA is. In return for a one-time premium (paid by the buyer or financed into the loan) the ECA insures the bank against non-payment for political and commercial reasons. This is why ECA-covered loans price like sovereign-adjacent risk even when the underlying buyer is a mid-market SPV in a frontier market.
The major ECAs by supplier country
- Germany — Euler Hermes (now Allianz Trade / AKA Bank).
- Italy — SACE.
- France — Bpifrance Assurance Export.
- United Kingdom — UK Export Finance (UKEF).
- Netherlands — Atradius Dutch State Business.
- Spain — CESCE.
- United States — US EXIM Bank.
- China — Sinosure (China Export & Credit Insurance).
- Japan — NEXI + JBIC.
- South Korea — K-SURE + KEXIM.
- Denmark — EKF; Sweden — EKN; Norway — GIEK; Finland — Finnvera.
Buyer eligibility rules
- The equipment must be sourced from the ECA's home country (or meet minimum local-content share, usually 51–70%).
- The buyer country must not be on the ECA's country cover suspension list.
- The contract must be new capex — not refinancing of existing debt.
- For projects above USD 15M, the ECA will require environmental and social review consistent with the OECD Common Approaches.
What ECA-covered pricing looks like
Under the OECD Arrangement, minimum interest rates (CIRRs) are published monthly per currency and tenor. Total buyer cost is CIRR (or SOFR/EURIBOR plus small bank margin) plus the one-time ECA premium. Premiums scale with buyer country risk (categories 0–7) and tenor. A well-structured ECA facility for a Category 3–4 country typically comes in 200–400 bps below what a local commercial bank would offer standalone.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to be based in an OECD country to use ECA financing?+
No — the buyer is the borrower and can be anywhere ECA country cover is open. What matters is that the supplier is based in the ECA's home country.
How long does ECA approval take?+
8–16 weeks for the ECA insurance underwriting, running in parallel with commercial-bank documentation. Total time to first drawdown is typically 4–6 months.
Can two ECAs cover the same project?+
Yes — 'multi-source ECA' structures are common when the EPC scope is split across suppliers in different countries. Each ECA covers its own supplier's portion.
What if the equipment is only partly from the supplier country?+
Most ECAs allow foreign content up to 30–49% of the export contract value; some (UKEF, Sinosure) go higher. Anything above the threshold is excluded from cover.
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