News

Washington, D.C. - Today the Export-Import Bank of the United States' (EXIM's) board of directors met to review two EXIM Small Business Division programs: the Minority- and Women-owned Business (MWOB) Group and the Client Care Unit (CCU).

Presenting to the board for the very first time since joining EXIM 25 years ago, Tamara Maxwell, Director of Minority and Women-Owned Business Outreach, noted that, for the past 10 years, EXIM has worked with MWOBs in 48 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. These businesses have exported to 166 countries. In FY 2018, EXIM supported 625 transactions for MWOBs totaling $454 million in export financing assistance. 

To fulfill a Congressional mandate in its charter, EXIM established the MWOB Group to continue and enhance EXIM's outreach activities "with respect to, and increase the total amount of loans, guarantees, and insurance provided by the Bank to support exports by, socially and economically disadvantaged small business concerns (as defined in section 8(a)(4) of the Small Business Act) and small business concerns owned by women." EXIM is required to report annually to Congress the progress the agency has made in supporting exports by these businesses. 

Maxwell also updated the board on the CCU, which was created in 2018 to decrease the amount of under-utilized EXIM export credit insurance and non-brokered policies by providing support and consultation to all policyholders who are not reporting shipments. 

Other EXIM staff presenting at today's board meeting were Nathalie Herman, Vice President and Treasurer, Paxton Roberts, Policy Analyst, Office of Policy Analysis and International Relations, and Erin Staton, Assistant General Counsel for Trade Finance and Insurance/Small Business.

"We want to see women prosper in the workforce and succeed as entrepreneurs," said EXIM President and Chairman Kimberly A. Reed.  "As the first woman chair of EXIM, I was honored to have four women colleagues present to our board on our agency's efforts to support U.S. job creation and public-private partnerships."

"Minority- and women-owned U.S. businesses are a special priority for me and are an important part of our small business mandate," added Chairman Reed. "When needed, EXIM is dedicated to helping these diverse companies find export financing solutions so that they and their employees can be successful in very competitive international markets."

Business owners are encouraged to contact any of EXIM's MWOB specialists to learn more about EXIM's export-finance solutions.

EXIM's board of directors also approved a $2 billion maximum issuance of secured notes for the Private Export Funding Corporation (PEFCO) through fiscal year 2020. Additionally, the EXIM board approved the restoration of floating rate authorities for PEFCO, returning PEFCO's ability to act as a liquidity provider to the export finance market. Both actions restore EXIM and PEFCO's public-private partnership, which was first established in 1971, but temporarily lapsed due to a lack of EXIM's board quorum, and increase the amount of private capital in EXIM's transactions in support of U.S. exports on longer repayment terms.

ABOUT EXIM BANK:

EXIM is an independent federal agency that promotes and supports American jobs by providing competitive and necessary export credit to overseas purchasers of U.S. goods and services. A robust EXIM can level the global playing field for U.S. exporters when they compete against foreign companies that receive support from their governments. EXIM also contributes to U.S. economic growth by helping to create and sustain hundreds of thousands of jobs in exporting businesses and their supply chains across the United States. In recent years, 90 percent of the total number of the agency's authorizations has directly supported small businesses.

For more information about EXIM, please visit www.exim.gov.