UK Export Finance

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UK Export Finance is the operating name of the Export Credits Guarantee Department, the UK's export credit agency and a ministerial department of the govt.

'Our mission is to ensure that no viable UK export fails for lack of finance or insurance, while operating at no net cost to the taxpayer. We are the UK’s export credit agency and a government department, working alongside the Department for International Trade as an integral part of its strategy and operations. We work with 70 private credit insurers and lenders to help UK companies access export finance (the particular class of loans, insurance policies or bank guarantees that enable international trade to take place as easily and securely as possible). We exist to complement not compete with the private sector."


Export Guarantees Advisory Council

We advise the Secretary of State for International Trade on UK Export Finance’s operations.

The Export Guarantees Advisory Council is a statutory body that provides advice to UK Export Finance and its ministers on the policies UK Export Finance applies when doing business including:

  • Environmental, social and human rights risks
  • Anti-bribery and corruption
  • Sustainable lending
  • Disclosure (freedom of information)

The council has 8 members, each representing a separate area of expertise. The members come from industry, government and academia, and are appointed by UK Export Finance’s ministers. About
Register of members’ interests, link
UK Export Finance annual reports and accounts, link

Articles

  • Oct.22.2019: UK to use £1bn meant for green energy to support fracking in Argentina. Govt plans to prioritise support of major oil companies investing in Argentina’s controversial oil shale industry using a £1bn export finance deal intended to support green energy. UK Export Finance promised in 2017 to offer £1bn loans to help UK companies export their expertise in “infrastructure, green energy and healthcare”. There were 13 meetings between the UK and oil companies operating in Argentina’s Vaca Muerta hydrocarbon reservoir since Jan.2018. Companies include Shell, Andina Resources, Phoenix Global Resources and BP's subsidiary, Pan American Energy. There have been no meetings with renewable energy companies. The investigation revealed an 11-fold increase in support for fossil fuels over the past year to ~£2bn. Jillian Ambrose, The Guardian.
  • Sept.10.2013: Arms Sales to Authoritarian Regimes, Early day motion. That this House notes that the arms export priority markets for the UK Trade and Investment's Defence and Security Organisation in 2013-14 included Libya, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates; further notes that the UK hosts one of the world's largest arms shows, Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI); agrees with the Committees on Arms Export Controls in its report on Scrutiny of Arms Exports and Arms Controls, HC 205, published on Jul.17.2013, that the govt would do well to acknowledge that there is an inherent conflict between strongly promoting arms exports to authoritarian regimes whilst strongly criticising their lack of human rights at the same time rather than claiming, as the govt continues to do, that these two policies are mutually reinforcing; is appalled that the Russian State Technology Corporation, Rostec, one of the main arms suppliers to President al-Assad of Syria, is exhibiting at DSEi 2013; and calls on the govt to end the promotion and export of military equipment to all authoritarian regimes. Caroline Lucas, Parliament.uk.
  • May.02.2011: Discrediting Britain. How the Export Credits Guarantee Department puts corporate profits above human rights. In Dec.2006, a little-known govt department became part of a national scandal when Tony Blair told the Serious Fraud Office to drop a corruption investigation into how a British arms company secured a massive Saudi Arabian arms deal in the 1980s. The controversial deal had been insured by the British govt through the Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD). The ECGD exists to support British exports by providing them with a sort of insurance. Over the past 10 years, support for fossil fuels, arms sales and aerospace has accounted for around 75% of its work. Last year one single company, Airbus, received 89% of ECGD support. From arms sales to dictators through oil and gas pipelines to mega-dams, the ECGD has backed projects that have been implicated in corruption, environmental destruction and human rights abuses. Even worse, when deals go wrong, it is often the developing country that ends up in debt. The ECGD pays out on the ‘insurance’ claim from the British public purse, and the amount paid becomes a debt of the country where the project took place. Today, developing countries owe £2bn of debt to the ECGD and have repaid £2.9bn since 2005. more... Nick Dearden, Red Pepper.