Strategic Cooperation / Policy Development

Export credits and credit insurances (ECAs) (international capital flows & trade)

Laatste Nieuws: Exportkredietverzekeringen blijven gemoederen verhitten

Klik hier voor een verslag van de expert meeting van 13 juli jl.

Export Credit Agencies and Investment Insurance Agencies, commonly known as ECAs, are public agencies that provide government-backed credits, loans, guarantees, and insurance to private corporations from their home country to do business abroad, especially in developing countries and emerging markets. Most industrialized nations have at least one ECA, which is often an official or semi-official institution of their government.

Nowadays, ECAs belong to the largest sources of public financial support for foreign corporate involvement in industrial projects overseas. Their investments (e.g. in oil, gas and mining projects) exceed in a substantial way the investments of all Multilateral Development Banks such as the World Bank Group. Half of all new greenhouse gas-emitting industrial projects in developing countries have some form of ECA support. ECAs often back such projects even though the World Bank Group and other multilateral banks find them too risky and potentially harmful to support. As a result, ECA-backed projects often despoil the environment and disrupt the lives of the communities.


Publications: For more information contact Wiert Wiertsema at ww(at)bothends.org