EX-IM BANK ANNOUNCES ANNUAL PERFORMANCE METRICS
The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) announced today that it is instituting annual measures of operational performance or metrics that will assist the Bank's management in allocating resources and in monitoring performance by providing quantitative measurements of how much business the Bank is doing and how quickly, how well demands are being met, and how satisfied the Bank's customers and other stakeholders are with the Bank's performance. The performance metrics will measure transaction efficiency, transaction cycle time, resource utilization, and customer satisfaction.
In support of President Bush's goals for management reform, Ex-Im Bank is serious about becoming more citizen-centered, results-oriented, and market-driven. I commend Vice Chairman Eduardo Aguirre and Ex-Im Bank's staff on successfully completing the recent reorganization of the Bank's divisions to accomplish these goals, and I anticipate that these performance metrics will give us valuable data and feedback on our progress, Ex-Im Bank Chairman Philip Merrill said.
Ex-Im Bank is now operating on a more user-friendly, customer-centered basis, said Ex-Im Bank Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer Eduardo Aguirre. These performance metrics will enable us to collect quantitative data on how well we are doing under the reorganization and what further steps we need to take to deliver on our goals of streamlining the process, standardizing our credit culture, and reducing the time it takes to obtain a credit decision.
On an annual basis, Ex-Im Bank will measure transaction efficiency and cycle time through numeric formulas that take into account the number of employees, the number of transactions, and the number of business days. Resource utilization will be measured by comparing the actual program budget authority appropriated by Congress with the level of authorizations that are actually committed by the Bank. Data on customer satisfaction will be gathered through a survey to be conducted by the Federal Consulting Group in the summer of 2003.
Ex-Im Bank is the official export credit agency of the United States that helps to finance the sales of U.S. exports, primarily to developing markets, by providing guarantees, loans and export credit insurance. In fiscal year 2002, Ex-Im Bank authorized financing to support nearly $13 billion of U.S. exports.