Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (K-SURE)
K-SURE is Korea Trade Insurance Corporation, Korea's official export credit agency under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources. It was established in July 1992 under the Trade Insurance Act to promote trade and overseas investment by Korean enterprises and to support national competitiveness through trade insurance rather than direct policy lending.
K-SURE is listed in the Berne Union member directory as Korea Trade Insurance Corporation. In Korea's dual official export credit system, K-SURE underwrites insurance and related trade insurance products while the Export-Import Bank of Korea provides official lending and bank-style guarantees. Documentation therefore separates insurer risk from lender risk even when both appear on one Korean export financing.
Mandate and business scope
K-SURE's published business scope covers trade insurance programmes for risks arising from export and import of goods and services, overseas construction works and investments, foreign exchange and interest rate fluctuation management, cultural contents and services exports, and other overseas transactions. It also provides credit research and credit information services, overseas receivables collection support, and management of the Trade Insurance Fund within an underwriting ceiling approved by the National Assembly.
The institutional form is insurance and guarantee underwriting on a public mandate. An export credit insurance policy or related guarantee defines insured risks, waiting periods, exclusions and claims mechanics. It does not substitute for a commercial loan principal funded by a bank or by KEXIM.
Medium and long-term product families
K-SURE publishes short-term and medium and long-term product menus. Medium and long-term supplier credit insurance compensates exporters when a deferred payment export contract with a settlement period exceeding two years is performed and the importer fails to pay for covered political or commercial reasons. Political risks include country credit risk pursuant to the OECD Arrangement and other risks outside Korea not attributable to the contract parties. Commercial risks include importer bankruptcy, inability to pay because of court debt freezing or debtor rescheduling, and delayed payment for at least two months from the due date.
Medium and long-term buyer credit insurance covers domestic and overseas financial institutions that cannot collect principal and interest on buyer credit loans to importers or banks in importing countries for capital goods and similar medium and long-term exports with settlement periods exceeding two years. The same political and commercial risk categories apply. Special reasons listed by K-SURE include unreasonable demands to change contract conditions and long deferments of payment or shipping dates.
Supplier credit structures leave the exporter as primary creditor where K-SURE covers defined non-payment risks. Buyer credit structures leave the bank as lender of record with K-SURE indemnity on the financed principal and interest. Pre-shipment cover, export bond insurance, overseas investment insurance, overseas construction works insurance and short-term export credit insurance and guarantees widen the menu beyond classical medium and long-term capital goods finance.
K-SURE Arrangement posture and documentation
Korea participates in the OECD Arrangement through its official support system. Officially supported export credits with repayment terms of two years or more are subject to Arrangement disciplines on repayment terms, minimum premium benchmarks and related transparency. Short-term insurance and pure marketable risk cover follow different product rules even when both sit under the national dual system.
On many Korean export financings, commercial banks fund portions insured by K-SURE while KEXIM may fund a parallel portion for its own account. The institutions are separate legal entities with separate documentation. K-SURE participation appears as a policy or guarantee product assigned or noted for the benefit of the insured bank or exporter. Intercreditor clauses allocate ranking among policy proceeds, commercial lenders and any KEXIM funding where both agencies appear.
K-SURE also publishes environmental and social review procedures for covered projects and credit information services that support underwriting. Those procedures inform eligibility and monitoring conditions in the insurance documentation. They do not convert K-SURE into a funded lender. As of September 2022, K-SURE reported 804 employees across a Seoul head office, domestic branches and representative offices abroad. Headcount figures describe organisational footprint. They are not product eligibility criteria.
K-SURE documentation for a given transaction records which Korean agency is on risk, which product form applies, whether OECD Arrangement terms govern the tenor, the insured percentage and how any bank facility connects to insurance indemnity. K-SURE is not Korea's sole official export institution; it is the official trade insurer and Berne Union member insurer for Korean export-related political and commercial risks under the Trade Insurance Act, alongside the separate lending mandate of the Export-Import Bank of Korea.