The Export-Import Bank has finished another fiscal year providing needed financial support to American exporters. The Bank provided over $5 billion in financing to small business exports, with the total authorized coming close to $21 billion. These transactions supported approximately 164,000 jobs.
The Export-Import Bank is a federal agency that supports and maintains jobs by working with the private sector to provide financing for export deals when traditional sources are unavailable. The bank continues to operate at no cost to the taxpayer. This year it transferred about $675 million in receipts to the general fund, which helped reduce the federal deficit.
True to its goal, the bank focuses in areas that have difficulty obtaining financing from the private sector. Nearly 90 percent of the bank’s transactions last year involved small businesses. A record high of almost $2 billion was authorized for transactions with Sub-Saharan Africa. The Bank also supported $2 billion in financing for women- and minority-owned businesses.
After calls to close the bank’s doors this summer, it was given temporary reprieve in September, but will face reauthorization by Congress in June of next year.