EXIM Announces Longer Repayment Terms, Flexibilities for Climate Projects
WASHINGTON – On July 15, the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) will begin offering longer repayment terms and additional flexibilities for most transactions, including climate projects. The new flexible financing terms and conditions are a result of a modernized agreement with Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Arrangement Participants. The modernization agreement will allow EXIM to provide longer repayment terms for most transactions, offer lower risk premium rates for certain borrowers using longer repayment terms, and create further incentives for a wider range of climate friendly and green transactions.
“Providing financing for American-made clean energy innovations is one of our agency’s top priorities,” said EXIM President and Chair Reta Jo Lewis. “This finalized modernization agreement will allow EXIM to continue to meet the needs of U.S. exporters, provide historic incentives for climate-beneficial projects, and advance the priorities of the Biden-Harris Administration.”
Under the updated Arrangement, EXIM will be able to offer maximum repayment terms up to 22 years, higher than the previous maximum of 18 years, to an expanded set of technologies offering the greatest climate change mitigation benefit. EXIM will also be able to offer maximum repayment terms up to 22 years for climate change adaptation projects. Many nuclear energy projects will also be eligible for up to 22-year maximum repayment terms. While necessary for project viability, loans and guarantees of this duration are not always available from private lenders in the commercial market, meaning that EXIM can help foster next-generation low-carbon technologies with these new flexibilities.
The modernized OECD Arrangement also expands the scope of green or climate friendly projects eligible for longer repayment terms under the Climate Change Sector Understanding (CCSU). The updated climate change mitigation project classes, now include projects related to energy storage, grid efficiency, battery production and recycling, clean hydrogen and ammonia production and storage, low emission manufacturing, zero and low emission transport, and clean energy minerals and ores.
In addition to the new flexibilities for climate-positive projects eligible for the CCSU, the agreement also provides more flexible financing terms and conditions for most other projects and sectors. Specifically, EXIM can offer up to 15-year repayment terms for most types of transactions, up from a previous maximum of 10 years. The agreement also introduces further repayment flexibilities (e.g., longer grace periods and larger balloon payments) and will reduce the minimum premium rates for higher credit risk borrowers using longer repayment terms.
In April, EXIM announced that Participants to the OECD Arrangement on Officially Supported Export Credits had reached an in-principle agreement on modernized terms and conditions after several years of negotiations, with EXIM playing a key role in developing the U.S. delegation’s negotiating position. The Participants to the Arrangement are the United States, Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, Türkiye, and the United Kingdom.
ABOUT EXIM:
The Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) is the nation’s official export credit agency with the mission of supporting American jobs by facilitating U.S. exports. To advance American competitiveness and assist U.S. businesses as they compete for global sales, EXIM offers financing including export credit insurance, working capital guarantees, loan guarantees, and direct loans. As an independent federal agency, EXIM contributes to U.S. economic growth by supporting tens of thousands of jobs in exporting businesses and their supply chains across the United States. Since 1992, EXIM has generated about $9 billion for the U.S. Treasury for repayment of overall U.S. debt. Learn more at www.exim.gov.