April 2022
Message from the President and Chair
Our Vision, Mission, and Values. 5
Goal 1: Support American prosperity through a strong, diverse portfolio
Goal 2: Foster American competitiveness through modern, sound policies and initiatives
Goal 3: Create a diverse, dynamic work environment where our teams thrive
Goal 4: Promote the integrity and transparency of our operations and processes
Message from the President and Chair
The Mission of the Export-Import Bank of the United States is to support the creation of American jobs by facilitating the export of U.S. goods and services. The EXIM Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2022 to 2026 advances that mission by focus our efforts to support American prosperity, foster American competitiveness, create a dynamic work environment for our teams, and to improve our operations. If we are successful, a diverse set of American businesses will leverage our export products and services supporting their business growth at home.
U.S. businesses face increased international competition, particularly from an increasingly aggressive China, and to help level the playing field, EXIM prioritizes efforts to pursue fair and transparent rules for Export Credit Agencies. Furthermore, as we continue to broaden our engagement with businesses including those businesses who work in transformational export sectors, we support the resilience of American businesses enabling them to endure challenges to their operations brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
EXIM continues to seek innovative ways to conduct our business, modernizing our platforms and applications and redesigning processes to work better for the American businesses we serve while maintaining accountability to the American taxpayer.
The dedicated team at EXIM harnesses our collective energy to continuously seek improvements to our operations, strengthen customer service, and foster an inclusive, diverse culture for our current and future team.
Sincerely,
Reta Jo Lewis
President and Chair
Overview
The Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) is the official export credit agency of the United States. EXIM is an independent Executive Branch agency, and our mission is to support the growth of American jobs by facilitating the export of U.S. goods and services.
When private sector lenders are unable or unwilling to provide financing, EXIM fills in the gap for American businesses by equipping them with the financing tools necessary to compete for global sales. In doing so, the agency levels the playing field for U.S. goods and services going up against foreign competition in overseas markets, so that American companies can grow and create good-paying American jobs.
FY2022-2026 Strategic Goals
Goal 1: Support American prosperity through a strong, diverse portfolio
Goal 2: Foster American competitiveness through modern, sound policies and initiatives
Goal 3: Create a diverse, dynamic work environment where our teams thrive
Goal 4: Promote the integrity and transparency of our operations and processes
Our Vision, Mission, and Values
Our Vision
Keep America Strong: Empower U.S. businesses and workers to compete globally
Our Mission
Support American jobs by facilitating U.S. exports
Our Shared Values
Integrity: We are honest, ethical, trustworthy, and united in purpose. We follow the rule of law and do the right thing, even when no one is watching.
Stewardship: We champion prosperity, opportunity, and excellence. We promote the well-being of our agency, our colleagues, our stakeholders, our country, and our world. We uphold public trust and confidence, while protecting the taxpayer through careful and responsible performance.
Accountability: We are responsible and transparent. We take ownership, keep our commitments, and answer at all levels to each other, the U.S. Congress, and the American taxpayer for our actions.
Equity: We respect each other and embrace diversity of ideas, people, and cultures. We work together as a team – using our collective strength – to achieve common goals and fulfill our mission.
Leadership: We empower, inspire, and motivate each other to innovate and lead so we grow and shape the future success of our workplace and our mission. We promote a collaborative and productive work environment, and recognize a job well done.
Goal 1: Support American prosperity through a strong, diverse portfolio
EXIM supports job growth across the United States, including in diverse communities, through exports and aims to promote economic growth and revitalization in areas hit hard by historic economic circumstances. U.S. businesses drive innovation and by continuing to deepen its private sector partnerships, EXIM strengthens U.S. business capacity to address major issues of our time – confronting the COVID-19 pandemic, implementing solutions to address climate change, and advancing equity priorities.
There has been an unprecedented transfer of manufacturing jobs overseas and EXIM is positioned to help reverse that trend by investing in U.S. manufacturing and supply chain capabilities that, in turn, support growth of good paying jobs. EXIM financing enables U.S. businesses of all sizes to grow through exporting – from innovative small businesses growing their international presence to industry leaders competing against aggressive companies backed by foreign export credit agencies.
By seeking new ways to help U.S. businesses access our products and services, and by benchmarking our offerings against those of global competitors, EXIM provides U.S. businesses opportunities to compete globally while building strong companies at home that employ American workers. Additionally, EXIM will analyze ways to modernize its lending policies and practices and increase its renewable energy and green technology portfolio by incorporating climate-related financial risk and other climate considerations into its investment decisions.
Objective 1.1: Expand EXIM support along the supply chain, including in transformational export areas and clean tech export sectors to support U.S. jobs
Objective 1.2: Promote U.S. exports of renewable energy, energy storage, energy efficiency, and other climate-positive goods and services to support American jobs
Objective 1.3: Incorporate climate-related financial risk in underwriting standards to embed prudent climate considerations into financing activities
Objective 1.4: Explore EXIM creation of a domestic finance program to support U.S. export-oriented manufacturing and supply chain capabilities
Target Outcomes
- Increase the small business total amount of authorizations to $6.9 billion by FY2026.
- Increase the percentage of Medium- and Long-Term applications by 25% by FY2026.
- Milestone 1: Develop updated climate policies for review, simplifying climate and renewable authorization terms by December 2022.
- Milestone 2: Review current climate related financial risk (current procedures at EXIM) and develop or enhance a plan to improve, if necessary, current procedures by December 2023.
Goal 2: Foster American competitiveness through modern, sound policies and initiatives
As President Biden has said, America is “in competition with China and other countries to win the 21st century,” and American workers and their companies will decide this competition. Exports help American businesses thrive, but they must have a fair playing field in which to compete. EXIM will increase its risk appetite to level the playing field in regions like Sub-Saharan Africa, enabling U.S. exporters to grow their businesses and create jobs at home. By increasing export opportunities for U.S. businesses, EXIM advances two major priorities – extending U.S. economic advancement to Sub-Saharan Africa through exports and supporting job creation. EXIM is positioned to facilitate greater private sector financing for trade with Sub-Saharan Africa, leveraging our programs to expand financial commitments in Sub-Saharan Africa.
In the years ahead, EXIM will improve our digital customer experience implementing tools and capabilities that are simple to use, accessible, equitable, and transparent in line with the Executive Order on Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government. Progress is already underway as EXIM redesigns its outreach platforms and modernizes its application process, simplifying access to its programs while reducing administrative burdens in its processes. These changes help EXIM to increase its small business portfolio and in particular its partnerships with minority-, women-, and veteran-owned businesses as well as those owned by people with disabilities, all of which historically have been underrepresented in the EXIM portfolio and in U.S. exports more broadly.
Objective 2.1: Leverage market data on Chinese malign influence to advance additional deal flexibilities
Objective 2.2: Facilitate greater support by U.S. commercial banks to increase exports of U.S. manufactured goods and services to Sub-Saharan Africa
Objective 2.3: Modernize digital capabilities and targeted outreach efforts enabling exporters to more readily leverage products and services offered by EXIM
Objective 2.4: Advocate for increased transparency in international forums, positioning EXIM to better compete with foreign ECAs
Objective 2.5: Implement targeted business development, outreach, and education initiatives especially to small businesses that include minority-, women-, people with disabilities-, and veteran-owned businesses to support export opportunities for historically underrepresented business owners
Target Outcomes
- Increase the total amount of authorizations meeting China and Transformational Export Program criteria to $450 million by FY2026.
- Conduct more than 600 outreach events per year by FY2026 to educate and inform small- and medium-sized enterprises, including minority-, women-, veteran-, and disability-owned firms, on EXIM support for exporters.
- Milestone 1: Enter into 10 Memoranda of Understanding with associations that support the growth and competitiveness of businesses owned by minorities, women, people with disabilities, tribal community members, and LGBTQ+ individuals by FY2026.
- Milestone 2: Enter into 5 Memoranda of Understanding with the U.S. government Interagency to facilitate the sharing of business data by FY2026.
Goal 3: Create a diverse, dynamic work environment where our teams thrive
Due, in part, to the small size of the agency, EXIM has had human capital challenges which, if not addressed, could negatively impact our operations and mission-critical functions. In particular, EXIM must prepare for anticipated staff retirements in the coming years due to the high number of employees eligible or nearly eligible for retirement. In addition, EXIM anticipates that it will experience effects of the Great Resignation currently underway in the United States. An increase in turnover exacerbates single point of failure risks, which the agency is actively working to mitigate by recruiting, hiring, and retaining top talent, and by strengthening workforce and succession planning.
The New Normal Initiative underpins efforts at EXIM to transform our operations, streamline enterprise decision making and practices, and prepare for the future of work in a hybrid environment. Key to our success is aligning human capital strategies and activities targeted toward recruiting, hiring, and retaining a high caliber, highly skilled, and diverse team to meet our mission, in line with the President’s Management Agenda. EXIM commits to center its work on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, increasing employee motivation and satisfaction, and reducing turnover. We must recruit interns and employees with a variety of backgrounds, skills, and experience, while highlighting potential career paths offered at EXIM. Specifically, we will foster professional development opportunities to prepare a diverse talent pipeline that has the skills necessary to lead an innovative, highly effective EXIM. This includes updating our onboarding activities and highlighting development and training opportunities for current employees, while supporting them to effectively leverage technology, collaboration, and accessibility tools to the greatest extent possible.
Objective 3.1: Reinvent employee and customer outreach to optimize use of existing IT capabilities and leverage new and accessible technologies in the future
Objective 3.2: Cultivate reputation as an ethical and secure workplace that centers our culture on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility
Objective 3.3: Optimize workforce analysis and succession planning to position the agency for the future
Objective 3.4: Conduct outreach, recruitment, hiring, and retention activities to create a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible EXIM that looks like America
Objective 3.5: Implement New Normal Initiatives to prepare EXIM for the future of work
Objective 3.6: Expand professional development opportunities for EXIM employees, enabling high performers to hone critical skills to build our leadership pipeline
Target Outcomes
- Maintain greater than 55% positive responses on the FEVS DEIA Index each year through FY2026.
- Maintain greater than 70% positive responses on the FEVS Employee Engagement Index each year through FY2026.
- Conduct succession planning with at least 80% of EXIM offices by FY2026.
- Milestone 1: Review, update, and/or develop at least 5 human capital policies to strengthen alignment with diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility priorities by FY2023.
Goal 4: Promote the integrity and transparency of our operations and processes
Fundamental to executing the EXIM mission are consistent processes and effective operations. In the years ahead EXIM will focus efforts on delivering excellent customer service both to our external customers – American businesses – and to our internal stakeholders, in line with priorities in the President’s Management Agenda. This requires investment in our workforce, providing development and training opportunities to grow the skills and capabilities needed to mature business operations at EXIM and prepare for the future. Additionally, EXIM will identify ways to evolve our procurement practices to advance sustainable climate solutions and expand procurement opportunities for diverse communities and businesses.
Due to increasing cybersecurity threats, there is heightened demand for EXIM to strengthen its capabilities to identify, protect, detect, respond to, and recover from these types of incidents, in line with requirements outlined in Executive Order 14028 on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity, which will require significant investments to address.
EXIM continues to foster a culture of data and evidence, increasing access to timely and accurate data to inform decision making. In support of this effort, EXIM aims to build evidence where it does not exist, ultimately enabling leaders to make decisions that best serve U.S. exporters and the American people.
Objective 4.1: Continue to build project management capacity enabling teams to deliver better outcomes
Objective 4.2: Implement internal controls processes and expand across EXIM
Objective 4.3: Mature enterprise risk management culture and strengthen alignment with strategic planning
Objective 4.4: Incorporate equity priorities into procurement policies and processes
Objective 4.5: Improve continuously internal and external customer service functions and capabilities at EXIM
Objective 4.6: Build a culture of data-informed decision-making
Objective 4.7: Reinforce cybersecurity capabilities to protect and secure data and systems at EXIM
Target Outcomes
- Maintain greater than 90% data quality level for public data disclosures each year through FY2026.
- Achieve a passing FISMA score each year through FY2026.
- Milestone 1: Establish a Collaboration Index by September 2022 to collect 360-degree data on our internal operations and processes.
- Milestone 2: Establish an External Customer Satisfaction Index by September 2022 to provide customer perspectives on our performance.