Small-Business Support

The following information summarizes Ex-Im Bank's activities in support of small business exports during the past fiscal year. To learn how Ex-Im Bank enables small business exporters to increase export sales and expand into new markets, please visit our small business portal.

Direct Small-Business Support

Ex-Im Bank authorized nearly $3.4 billion – more than 27 percent of total authorizations – in direct support of U.S. small businesses as primary exporters in FY 2006. The Bank approved 2,390 transactions that were made available for the direct benefit of small-business exporters. These transactions represented 86 percent of the total number of transactions in FY 2007, and 369 small businesses used Ex-Im Bank programs for the first time during the fiscal year. In FY 2007, Ex-Im Bank approved financing in amounts under $500,000 for 988 small- business transactions.

Small-Business Supplier Data (Indirect Support)

Ex-Im Bank is required to estimate on the basis of an annual survey or tabulation the number of entities that are suppliers of customers of the Bank and that are small-business concerns.

Ex-Im Bank estimates the value of exports supported that is attributable to small-business suppliers at the time of authorization of each long-term transaction (i.e., transactions either of $10 million or more or with a repayment term in excess of seven years).

Ex-Im Bank estimates that the total value of indirect small-business content associated with transactions supported through the Bank’s long-term loans and guarantees authorizations during FY 2007 was $850 million out of a total estimated export value of $7.7 billion. This export value represents more than 11 percent of the total estimated export value associated with the Bank’s long-term financing.

Technology Improvements

Ex-Im Online – the Bank’s online business system – automates and modernizes Ex-Im Bank’s primary business processes, particularly for the products most used by small businesses (short-term export-credit insurance) and those buyer-financing products that most benefit small-business exporters directly and small-business suppliers indirectly (medium-term insurance and guarantees).

Ex-Im Online provides exporters, particularly small businesses, with the benefits of electronic application submission, processing and insurance-policy management. These benefits improve Ex-Im Bank’s response time, increase productivity and improve risk management.

Ex-Im Bank has continued to expand its Web-based subscription service and list manager to provide customers with the ability to get up-to-date news from the Bank. The public and small businesses can subscribe for free to the Bank’s News Update, Exporter Newsletter, Environmental Exports Program Update, Africa News, and The Americas and Carribean, Middle East and North Africa News, as well as receive alerts on changes to the Country Limitation Schedule.

Ex-Im Bank’s regional offices in New York, Florida, Illinois, Texas and California are now using a new customer relationship-management application to assist in small-business outreach and support.

The Bank participates in the government-wide “Business Gateway” initiative to integrate the content and functions of the Web sites of Ex-Im Bank, the Small Business Administration and other agencies into one comprehensive site, www.business.gov, as well as the U.S. government export Web site, www.export.gov. The Bank also participates in the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee’s “One Stop, One Form” registration system, an Internet-based application system for all federal-government export programs.

Outreach to Small Businesses

Ex-Im Bank is committed to providing export financing for socially and economically disadvantaged small businesses, including those that are minority-owned and woman-owned, and small businesses employing fewer than 100 employees.

The Bank continued to coordinate outreach efforts to minority- and woman-owned businesses by building partnerships with small-business development councils, minority-business councils, trade associations and chambers of commerce throughout the United States. For example, the Florida Women’s Business Center (FWBC) in Miami, a public-private organization, joined Ex-Im Bank’s City/State Partners Program. FWBC will market Ex-Im Bank financing products and provide application assistance to woman- and minority-owned Florida companies.

Ex-Im Bank staff delivered presentations at several major conference events throughout the year, including the Small Business Administration’s annual conference and the annual conference of the National Association of Women Business Owners. Many of the small businesses that attend the seminars and trade shows in which Ex-Im Bank participates employ less than 100 employees.

Ex-Im Bank sponsors seminars and symposia throughout the country that are targeted to small businesses that traditionally have been underserved in the trade-finance market. The symposia consist of half-day training programs to help U.S. companies learn how to use U.S. government resources to find foreign buyers and use trade-finance tools.

Page Updated: April 7, 2008