Sinosure cover in Chinese export credit

Sinosure cover is official Chinese export credit and related insurance provided by China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation, a state-funded policy-oriented insurance company established on 18 December 2001 to support China's foreign trade and economic cooperation through insurance rather than direct policy lending.

Institutional mandate

Sinosure describes itself as a state-funded policy-oriented insurance company whose mission is supporting China's foreign trade and economic cooperation. Its published profile states that it expands export credit insurance to provide comprehensive risk protection for the export of Chinese goods, technologies and services, as well as for overseas project contracting and investment.

Sinosure is listed as a member of the Berne Union under the name China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation. In bank export finance usage it functions as China's principal official insurance export credit agency. The product form is insurance (and related guarantees), not a substitute for a commercial loan principal. An export credit guarantee or insurance policy under Sinosure cover defines insured risks, insured percentage, tenor and claims conditions in the policy wording.

China is not a Participant to the OECD Arrangement. Arrangement repayment, premium and tied aid disciplines therefore do not bind Chinese official support in the same way they bind Participants such as Korea, Japan or EU member states. Transaction terms still need to be read from Sinosure documentation and any bank facility that relies on the policy.

What Sinosure cover includes

Sinosure's product pages group cover into medium and long-term export credit insurance, overseas investment insurance, short-term export trade insurance, short-term specialised export insurance, domestic trade credit insurance, import credit insurance, guarantees and credit information services.

Medium and long-term export credit insurance covers risks relating to collection of deferred payment by exporters, receivables of financial leasing companies, and recovery of loan principal and interest by financial institutions. The tenor is normally two to fifteen years. Covered commercial risk includes debtor bankruptcy, winding-up or dissolution, or default of principal or interest due under the loan agreement or commercial contract. Covered political risk includes exchange restrictions or related administrative measures preventing repayment in the agreed or freely convertible currency, moratoria announced by the debtor's country or a relevant third country, and war, revolution or riot in the debtor's country or other political events determined by Sinosure.

Insured percentages published for medium and long-term products are up to 95 percent for export buyer's credit insurance and export deferred payment refinancing insurance, and up to 90 percent for export supplier's credit insurance. Overseas lease insurance is published at up to 90 percent depending on whether a financial institution or non-financial institution is insured.

Export buyer's credit insurance is cover Sinosure provides to a financial institution to safeguard loan repayments under buyer credit financing. Export supplier's credit insurance is cover provided to an exporter to safeguard foreign exchange collection under supplier credit financing. Export deferred payment refinancing insurance covers a financial institution that buys out medium and long-term receivables under an export contract on a non-recourse basis.

Overseas investment insurance covers investors and financial institutions against economic loss from political risks in the host country, including expropriation, exchange restrictions, and war and political violence, for tenors not exceeding twenty years. Short-term export trade insurance covers receivables losses from commercial or political risks on goods or services exports, or on bank factoring and forfaiting, with credit periods generally within one year and not exceeding two years. Short-term specialised cover addresses cost and receivables losses on equipment export and project contracting contracts with credit periods of two years or less.

Guarantees and credit services

Sinosure also publishes financing guarantees and non-financing guarantees such as bid, performance and advance payment guarantees for capital goods export, overseas contracting, overseas investment and trade. Those instruments credit-enhance defined obligations; they remain separate from medium and long-term credit insurance policies even when used on related projects.

Credit investigation and country and industry risk analysis sit alongside insurance. The corporate profile describes specialised research and credit service affiliates and a credit information database used to support foreign trade enterprises. Those services inform underwriting and client risk management; they do not themselves indemnify non-payment.

Sinosure cover in bank structures

Sinosure cover in bank structures appears as an insurance policy or guarantee assigned or noted for the benefit of the insured lender or exporter. The bank remains lender of record on a buyer credit. The exporter remains the credit provider on a supplier credit unless receivables are sold under a refinancing structure that Sinosure separately insures.

Documentation boundaries matter. The commercial or loan agreement sets payment and default terms. The Sinosure policy sets insured percentage, waiting periods, exclusions, premium and claims cooperation. Failure to maintain required cover can be a facility default where the loan requires it. Recoveries and subrogation after claim payment follow the policy and any security package.

Import credit insurance covers prepayment losses on imports arising from commercial or political risks. Domestic trade credit insurance covers domestic receivables or prepayment losses from commercial risks with credit periods generally within one year. Those products widen the menu beyond classical cross-border export credit but remain insurance contracts with defined perils rather than funded loans.

Headline institutional volume figures published by Sinosure describe aggregate supported trade and claims paid over time. They are not eligibility thresholds for individual transactions and do not replace product-specific underwriting, country limits or policy wording. Berne Union membership places Sinosure among official and private credit insurers that report industry data and share practice, without converting Chinese official support into OECD Arrangement Participant status.

Credit review of a Sinosure-supported financing identifies which product is on risk, the insured percentage, whether the insured is a bank or an exporter, the tenor band, political and commercial peril definitions, and how policy proceeds connect to the facility security package. Peers such as UKEF, Hermes cover and US EXIM organise official support under different national statutes and, for Arrangement Participants, under OECD disciplines that do not automatically apply to Sinosure.

Sinosure cover is therefore Chinese official export credit insurance capacity for defined commercial and political risks across short-term trade, medium and long-term export finance and overseas investment. It is insurance and related guarantee support under a policy-oriented state insurer, not multilateral development bank finance and not OECD Arrangement Participant cover by default.