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Most in Congress think the bank's charter will expire, at least temporarily. More than 80 years after it was founded in the midst of the Great Depression, the U.S. Export-Import Bank could be nearing its end. And it could come down to partisan politics.
The charter authorizing the credit agency, which is charged with accepting credit risk to help spur the sale of American-made goods abroad, expires at the end of June. While for most of its history, the bank was so uncontroversial that its charter was renewed without so much as a recorded vote, a growing outcry from conservatives in the past few years has imperiled it. Supporters say the bank, which primarily guarantees loans taken by U.S. businesses to sell products overseas, is hugely important to small- and medium-size businesses and is an engine for job creation and opening new markets overseas. In the 2014 fiscal year that ended in October, the bank provided $20.5 billion in credit assistance. It did so at no cost to the taxpayer, and actually returned $675 million to the U.S. Treasury from interest and fees. If the bank were to close, a large corporation like Boeing would have to take on more of its own risk, but not stop exporting planes. But smaller companies often rely on the bank to make loans to foreign buyers for their products, and could see significant hits to their sales and profits.
www.usnews.com
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