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To encourage increased purchases of U.S. goods and services by small and medium-sized Mexican businesses, top officials of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) and Mexico's development bank, Nacional Financiera SNC (NAFIN), signed a historic Memorandum of Understanding at NAFIN headquarters today in Mexico City. Dan Renberg, a member of the Ex-Im Bank board of directors, signed the agreement with NAFIN's Director General Mario Laborin Gomez. Mexican President Vicente Fox Quesada and U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Jeffrey Davidow witnessed the signing and spoke at the event, a one-day conference focusing on trade financing for small and medium-sized companies.

I am very optimistic that the Memorandum of Understanding that we are signing today with NAFIN represents an excellent opportunity for U.S. businesses to reach Mexican small and medium-sized businesses in large numbers. We look forward to implementing the terms of this agreement with NAFIN in this new partnership, said Renberg.

Under the Memorandum of Understanding, Ex-Im Bank and NAFIN will implement initiatives to support creditworthy transactions and enable Mexican companies to obtain favorable credit terms for their purchases of goods, services, and technologies from the United States. In addition, NAFIN will become an Ex-Im Bank guaranteed lender, which will permit Ex-Im Bank to guarantee up to 85 percent of loans made by NAFIN to Mexican companies for purchases of U.S. goods and services on medium and long repayment terms.

In the past five years, Ex-Im Bank has supported $7.4 billion of U.S. exports to Mexico, one of Ex-Im Bank's largest markets. Ex-Im Bank is an independent U.S. government agency that assists in financing the export of U.S. goods and services to markets around the world, through export credit insurance, loan guarantees, and direct loans. In fiscal year 2000, Ex-Im Bank helped to finance nearly $15.5 billion of U.S. exports worldwide.