News

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) has entered a new marketing partnership with the state of Illinois in order to help Illinois businesses boost export sales and jobs.Ex-Im Bank's City/State Partnership with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) gives thousands of exporters, especially small businesses, access to information about the Bank's resources.

The partnership is expected to accelerate export business and job growth by connecting Bank products and services to a statewide network of Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) and International Trade Centers (ITCs), where entrepreneurs meet export finance counselors and learn how to grow their businesses.

Ex-Im Bank has a lot to offer Illinois businesses that want to grow their exports, and this partnership will put Ex-Im's financing benefits on display for them, said Ex-Im Bank Chairman and President Fred P. Hochberg.Owners of small and medium-size businesses already come to Illinois export centers to improve their understanding of export trade; now they will find Ex-Im Bank resources in the same place.There they can learn about Express Insurance and other cost-effective tools the Bank offers.We trust this new connection will support increased sales and job growth in Illinois.

Ex-Im Bank's City/State Partnership with international trade educators and business experts in Illinois aims to build upon existing successes there.Twelve International Trade Centers are associated with SBDCs located in Illinois, mostly on university campuses.Although a correlation between ITC services and increased exports remains to be proved, the ITCs uniquely focus expertise upon how export businesses start, grow, and gain profits.Export sales growth from Illinois over the past four years has exceeded the national average, increasing by 63 percent compared to the nation's average 47 percent.In 2012, direct exports accounted for ten percent of the Gross State Product.

We are committed to helping our small and medium-sized businesses in Illinois gain access to capital to expand to markets outside the U.S., said Adam Pollet, DCEO director. Small businesses are driving economic growth in Illinois and this partnership with Ex-Im Bank will give small businesses the additional support they need to export globally.

The purpose of the City/State Partners program is to ensure that the Bank's export finance programs are more accessible to small and medium-sized business through the help of local, state, and regional economic development and business support organizations.Each City/State Partner pledges to make financing assistance and entrepreneurial services available to local businesses in order to create, promote, and expand enterprises that export.Partners - whether governmental entities or non-profit organizations - explicitly recognize exporters as key supporters of U.S. jobs.Ex-Im Bank in turn provides its Partners with free marketing and training materials, qualified finance experts to speak at Partners' events, assistance with outreach and counseling, and access to a network of lenders, insurance brokers, and U.S. Government export resources.

Through its City/State Partnership with Illinois, Ex-Im Bank offers to Illinois enterprises expanded access to products such as its Global Credit Express, which helps exporters acquire low-cost working capital up to $500,000, as well as Express Insurance, which simplifies small business access to export credit risk insurance on their foreign accounts receivable.The Bank has designed an array of low-cost loans, guarantees, export credit insurance, and supply-chain financing structures to enable both small and large businesses to export globally without fear of nonpayment.

Besides its new IL DCEO-SBDC-ITC Partnership, the Bank cooperates with two other City/State Partners in Illinois: Global Midwest Alliance LLC, and the Chicago Trade Accelerator, organized by World Business Chicago.The Trade Accelerator was inaugurated February 18 in a joint announcement by Ex-Im Bank Chairman Fred Hochberg and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel.

ABOUT EX-IM BANK:

Ex-Im Bank is an independent federal agency that helps to create and maintain U.S. jobs by filling gaps in private export financing at no cost to American taxpayers. In the past five years (from Fiscal Year 2008), Ex-Im Bank has earned for U.S. taxpayers nearly $1.6 billion above the cost of operations. The Bank provides a variety of financing mechanisms, including working capital guarantees, export-credit insurance and financing to help foreign buyers purchase U.S. goods and services.

Ex-Im Bank approved a total of $35.8 billion in authorizations in FY 2012 - an all-time Ex-Im record. This total includes more than $6.1 billion directly supporting small-business export sales - also an Ex-Im record. The Bank's authorizations in FY 2012 are supporting an estimated $50 billion in U.S. export sales and about 255,000 American jobs in communities across the country. For more information, visit www.exim.gov.