FAQ

The risks which can be insured by Export Credit Greece are divided into “commercial” and “political”.

“Commercial” risks of non-payment are:

• Insolvency of the foreign buyer
• Delay of the foreign buyer (i.e. unjustified delay to pay the invoice)
• Arbitrary termination, amendment or non-execution of the export contract by the buyer. A typical example of an arbitrary termination of the export contract, with a “Cash Against Documents’’ payment settlement, is the one where the importer does not come to the intermediary foreign bank to pay the value of the imported goods/services and to receive from the bank the relevant documents required in order to receive the goods.

“Political risks” of non-payment are offered “as a package” and are:

• Force majeure events (civil war or war against another country, civil unrest, general strikes, natural disasters, etc.)
• Transfer risk. Transfer risk means that while the foreign importer-debtor deposits on time in a bank of their country the outstanding amount in domestic currency, the conversion into foreign currency and the relevant remittance in Greece does not take place, because there is no foreign currency adequacy in the importing country.
• Cancelation of the import license.
• Imposition of a moratorium in the country of destination of the export. The moratorium, inter alia, suspends certain deadlines and therefore prevents the timely repayment of the insured credits.

Upon completion of the credit assessment procedure, ECG sets the maximum credit limit per customer. This is a maximum amount, up to which the insured can provide credits at any time to the specific customer. The above credit limit is “revolving” and its validity is terminated for as long as there is an overdue claim.

The maximum percentage of coverage that Export Credit Greece can offer is 95%. Upon completion of credit assessment procedure, ECG determines the maximum credit limits per customer that are notified in writing to the insured.

Export Credit Greece follows a simple and rapid procedure in order to first ascertain the occurrence of the insured risk and the amount of the loss and then to pay the provided compensation.

Depending on the type of risk that has occurred and the speed of the fulfilment of your relevant obligations to ECG, the time interval between the notification about the risk occurrence and the payment of the compensation may be from 1 to 9 months.
It is noted that the total maximum amount of compensation for all incurred risks and all incurred losses covered by the insurance policy, may not exceed thirty times (30 times) the premiums paid to ECG under the same insurance policy.

Furthermore, the contribution and assistance of ECG is not limited to the payment of compensation. It proceeds further to extrajudicial and/or judicial actions, through communication carried out exclusively by ECG on behalf and for the benefit of both interested parties (ECG – insured), in order to recover the entire amount of the debt from the foreign buyer. Therefore, it reimburses to the insured the recovered amount added to the amount of the compensation paid by ECG.

To this end, Export Credit Greece has set up a global network of partners – experts, collection companies, law firms – which is constantly expanding.