The resort to the facility shows that the financial crisis, and restricted access to capital, have spread to every type of issuer. Eksportfinans’ problems were exacerbated by state-guaranteed bank debt.
"The purpose is for us to increase lending," Oliver Siem, executive vice-president and director of treasury at Eksportfinans, tells Euromoney. "There is a real challenge for Eksportfinans and other non-explicitly guaranteed institutions to get long-term financing in the international capital markets right now."
| "There is a real challenge for Eksportfinans and other non-explicitly guaranteed institutions to get long-term financing in the international capital markets right now" Oliver Siem, Eksportfinans |
Siem says the government will enact a scheme for a facility of up to NKr 50 billion ($7.2 billion). "Eksportfinans has the right to draw on this facility for the next two years," he says. "The amount we are able to draw down is equal to the new lending to the export sector, and with a duration up to five years. Our policy on the lending side will not change." New export projects that qualify under the OECD Consensus Agreement for export financing will be refinanced under the facility.