China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation (Sinosure)
Sinosure is China Export and 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. In bank export finance usage it functions as China's principal official insurance export credit agency.
Sinosure is listed as a Berne Union member under the name China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation. The product form is export credit insurance and related guarantees, not a substitute for a commercial loan principal. A Sinosure policy defines insured risks, insured percentage, tenor and claims conditions in the policy wording.
Institutional mandate
Sinosure's 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. Aggregate institutional figures published on that profile describe supported trade and claims paid over time. Those figures describe portfolio scale. They are not eligibility thresholds for individual transactions.
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. Transaction terms still need to be read from Sinosure documentation and any bank facility that relies on the policy.
Medium and long-term cover
Sinosure's 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.
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.
Credit investigation and country and industry risk analysis sit alongside insurance. Sinosure's profile describes specialised research 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.
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. Peers such as Arrangement Participant ECAs organise official support under OECD disciplines that do not automatically apply to Sinosure.
A Sinosure-supported financing is defined by the product on risk, the insured percentage, whether the insured party is a bank or an exporter, the tenor band, the political and commercial peril definitions, and how policy proceeds connect to the facility security package. Sinosure is therefore Chinese official export credit insurance capacity for defined commercial and political risks, delivered as insurance under a policy-oriented state insurer rather than as OECD Arrangement Participant cover by default.