Export-Import Bank of the United States

President and Chair Reta Jo Lewis leads the institution, but authority is shared across a board of directors — three of five seats must be filled for a quorum. Large transactions, typically over $100 million, require board-level notification or approval depending on the structure. The career staff within the Office of the Chief Banking Officer executes day-to-day underwriting.

The bank does not have an AUM or endowment in the traditional sense. By statute, its aggregate exposure limit — loans, guarantees, and insurance outstanding — is $135 billion. Actual utilization is significantly lower; authorizations totaled $8.7 billion in fiscal 2024. The bank funds itself through Treasury borrowings and fee income, requiring periodic congressional reauthorization.

EXIM does not source proprietary deal flow in the private-sector sense. US exporters and the commercial banks that serve them apply directly for financing support. The bank also maintains a network of regional export finance centers and works with city-state export promotion partners. The pipeline is demand-driven — when foreign buyers lack access to dollar credit, US exporters bring them to EXIM.

No. The bank's congressional charter limits it to loans, guarantees, and insurance. It cannot take equity stakes in projects or companies. This distinguishes it from the US International Development Finance Corporation, which can make equity and mezzanine investments in emerging markets.

Aerospace has historically been the largest concentration, driven by Boeing aircraft financing. Energy and power generation, particularly LNG infrastructure, have grown as a share of authorizations. The Congressionally mandated small-business portfolio — loans and guarantees for firms with fewer than 500 employees — typically accounts for roughly 20 percent of authorized transactions by volume.

EXIM operates under a 'reasonable assurance of repayment' mandate — it is not a foreign-aid agency. Every transaction must pass commercial underwriting standards. The bank competes directly with foreign export credit agencies to level the playing field for US exporters, rather than targeting development outcomes as its primary objective.

Co-financing is the default model. EXIM's working-capital guarantee program explicitly requires a commercial bank as the originating lender, with EXIM guaranteeing a portion of the facility. On large project finance mandates, EXIM often participates alongside other export credit agencies and private lenders, taking a senior tranche to crowd-in commercial debt.