UK Export Finance (UKEF), export credit agency
UK Export Finance (UKEF) is the United Kingdom's export credit agency and a ministerial government department. It is the operating name of the Export Credits Guarantee Department and operates under the Export and Investment Guarantees Act 1991. Its published mission is to advance prosperity by ensuring no viable UK export fails for lack of finance or insurance, sustainably and at no net cost to the taxpayer.
UKEF works with private credit insurers and lenders and states that it exists to complement, not compete with, the private sector. Official materials group support around three outcomes for UK companies: winning export contracts through buyer finance, fulfilling contracts through working capital and bond support, and getting paid through insurance against buyer default. Support can extend to exporters of any size and across sectors, including capital goods, services and intangibles such as intellectual property.
Mandate and legal form
UKEF is strategically and operationally aligned with the Department for Business and Trade. Documentation may refer to ECGD, UKEF, or both. The institution is listed in the Berne Union member directory. Environmental, social and human rights risk management and financial crime compliance sit alongside credit underwriting in the official process description.
UKEF acts as the UK official support counterparty in buyer credit structures, supplier credit insurance, working capital guarantees and bond support. Depending on the transaction, UKEF may be guarantor on a buyer loan, direct lender, insurer of the exporter, or partial guarantor of a bond.
Products used by banks and exporters
Buyer side instruments described in official guidance include the Buyer Credit Facility, which provides a guarantee to a bank lending to an overseas buyer so that capital goods, services and/or intangibles can be purchased. The exporter receives payment as though the contract were cash while the buyer obtains extended repayment terms, typically two years or longer.
Eligibility for that facility includes a UK exporter carrying on business in the UK, an export contract value of at least £5 million or foreign currency equivalent, an acceptable lending bank, and a repayment period of at least two years. The maximum loan amount is 85 percent of contract value, with a minimum 15 percent paid directly by the buyer to the exporter before loan repayment starts.
Related buyer finance products published by UKEF include the Standard Buyer Loan Guarantee, Bills and Notes Guarantee, Repeat Order Guarantee, Early Project Services Guarantee and the Direct Lending Facility. Fulfilment products include the Bond Support Scheme, which can guarantee up to 80 percent of a contract bond's value, and working capital related schemes. Payment protection includes the Export Insurance Policy, which can insure exporters for up to 95 percent of potential losses under an export contract where eligibility is met, and Bond Insurance Policy cover against unfair calling or certain political events.
Those instruments are forms of export credit guarantee or export credit insurance rather than private market policies written solely on commercial capital.
Eligibility and market complementarity
Eligibility and underwriting remain UK policy decisions: support must fit UKEF's export mandate and risk appetite, and must fill a market gap rather than displace available private cover. Foreign content rules, anti bribery and corruption requirements, and environmental, social and human rights due diligence apply on relevant facilities. Country cover indicators describe where cover is available. Sanctions on the buyer's country can prevent support.
UKEF is prohibited from supporting export insurance with a horizon of risk of less than 24 months in listed marketable risk markets, including EU member states, Australia, Canada, Iceland, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and the USA. Fossil fuel extraction related exports are outside Export Insurance Policy support on the published terms.
UK Export Finance and the OECD Arrangement
Medium and long term officially supported export credits follow OECD Arrangement disciplines. The Arrangement is a Participants' framework among Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, Türkiye, the United Kingdom and the United States. It places limitations on financing terms and conditions, including repayment terms, minimum premium rates and minimum interest rates, for officially supported export credits with a repayment term of two years or more.
UKEF therefore applies Arrangement ceilings and premium floors on medium and long term buyer credit and related official support, while short term marketable risk cover remains constrained by the market complementarity rules described above. Premium and guarantee fees price country and buyer risk under national schedules constrained, for Arrangement business, by those minimum benchmarks.
Institutional boundaries
UKEF is not a commercial bank and is not a general development finance institution. It is a national ECA organised around UK export eligibility. Multilateral lenders and private insurers may appear in the same capital structure, but their mandates and claim mechanics differ from a UKEF guarantee or insurance policy. The precise terms of a UKEF-backed facility, including risk retained by the lending bank, UK content evidence and premium levels, are set out in the underlying facility documentation rather than in general published guidance.
UK Export Finance is therefore UK official finance and insurance capacity for eligible exports, used by banks primarily through buyer credit guarantees, direct lending, bond support and exporter insurance under UKEF rules and OECD Arrangement disciplines.