Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (K-SURE)
Last updated on 21 Feb 2024
Key facts
An official export credit agency under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy that promotes trade and overseas investment of Korean enterprises to boost national competitiveness.
PUBLIC
1992
Credit rating (Moody's)
Aa2
Aa2
Foreign currency
Local currency
Authorizations and exposure
FY 2022 authorizations
Non-SME support
68%
SME support
32%
FY 2022 exposure
Financing modalities
`
Up to 100%
Up to 100%
`
100%
Products
- Insures Korean exporters against the risk of nonpayment of accounts receivable from foreign buyers
- Cover: Commercial and political risks
- Short-term:
- Applies to insuring importers and issuing bank L/Cs
- Tenor: Up to 2 years
- Medium- and long-term:
- Focused on the EPC and shipbuilding industries because these contracts have extended delivery periods
- Tenor: Over 2 years
- Useful when deliveries are to developing countries
- Medium and long-term buyer credit:
- Covers financial institutions at home or abroad providing buyer credits against nonpayment by importers or importing countries’ financial institutions for a Korean export transaction
- Cover: Commercial and political risks
- Tenor: Over 2 years
- Short-term buyer credit:
- Cover for a financial institution lending directly to an importer or to a local bank that on-lends to the importer (bank-to-bank structure)
- Amount covered: Principal and interest
- Premium: Calculated as a function of the product (direct vs. indirect loan) and whether the policyholder subscribes to comprehensive cover
- Premium payment: At least 60% of annual premium must be paid within 30 days of policy issuance
- Available to financial institutions covered under the medium- or long-term buyer’s credit insurance
- Indemnifies financial institutions for losses and redeems returns resulting from fluctuating interest rates
- Tenor: Over 2 years
- Applies to CIRR rate lending
- K-SURE pays financial institution the difference in interest rates when CIRR is lower than the floating Rate
- K-SURE is paid by the financial institution when CIRR is greater than the floating rate on the difference
- Designed to help Korean companies and financial institutions participate in overseas business activities more actively, it indemnifies the policyholders (lenders for overseas businesses) for principal and interest
- Eligibility:
- Borrowers can be foreign companies, financial institutions, and governments with a Korean company (or an overseas subsidiary of a Korean company) taking part in the project as equity investors, operations and maintenance contractors, feedstock suppliers, off-takers, etc.
- Tenor: Over 2 years up to a maximum tenor (on a case-by-case basis)
- Cover:
- Up to 100%
- Comprehensive risk (political and commercial)
- Insured amount: Principal and interest
- Available for overseas resource development to secure strategic resources in a stable manner—this is necessary because Korea is a resource poor, though highly developed country
- Cover: Commercial and political risk for both exploratory and development and production stages of a project
- Covers losses by contractors of overseas construction projects arising from political risks and project owners’ commercial risks
- The policyholders may pay insurance premiums in installments commensurate with their construction works on a milestone basis
- Insured risks depend on the duration of risks based on:
- Shipment
- Insurance of certificate of performance
- Payment by construction project owner
- Cover:
- Construction and technology services: Political and commercial risk coverage
- Construction equipment: Political risks only (e.g., expropriation, wars, and money transfer)
- Covers financial institutions that extend financing to Korean developers of overseas projects in the areas of natural resources, property, mergers and acquisitions, etc., that normally require a large-scale, long-term financing
- Cover:
- Commercial risks: Bankruptcy of the main stakeholder of overseas developers, bankruptcy of domestic developers, and defaults
- Political risks: Wars, expropriation, failure to execute agreements and irresistible risks, money transfer risks, and force majeure
- Covers nonpayment of service charges following delivery of the services to foreign buyers
- Eligibility: The following sectors and services are eligible for the cover:
- Tour operators
- Transportation (losses in service charges)
- System integration, including hardware, software, system networks, and IT personnel for the construction and maintenance of information system
- Technical services
- Medical services
- Engineering, including losses in expenditures and royalties
- Education
- Content defined as online and mobile games, movies, character-related business, animations, and broadcasting
- Medium- and long-term export credit insurance: Covers exporters’ losses when export becomes impossible or when exporters cannot receive export proceeds from importers after concluding export contracts with settlement periods exceeding 2 years
- Export bond insurance:
- Covers losses suffered by financial institutions in case exporters default on redeeming their bank guarantees issued by financial institutions for export transactions
- Covered events: Fair and unfair calling
- Foreign exchange risk insurance (Forward):
- Hedges currency fluctuation risk for exporters
- Targets Korean SMEs with weak foreign exchange capabilities
- Insures against losses or benefit gains from foreign exchange fluctuations for accounts receivable
- Product liability insurance:
- Insures against faulty or damaged parts, components, or materials produced by Korean companies after the delivery has been made to a third party
- Targets Korean SMEs to boost competitiveness
- Cover: Product guarantee, product liability, and product recall
- Importer credit search service
- Overseas debt collection service
Policies
- Posts environmental reviews of projects for public disclosure and comment
- Established K-SURE Principles of Business Integrity
- Utilizes customer satisfaction capability building program to achieve better customer service
- Adheres to corporate social responsibility guidelines, including ethics
News
- 2023: K-SURE opened export SMEs center as a regional stronghold