The Government’s objectives

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  • EKN adapts its guarantees to meet the exporter’s requirements, and invests in more support for small and medium sized enterprises.
    Photographer: Fredrik Schlyter/Johnér

EKN shall ensure that the promotion of Swedish exports by means of guarantees is done in collaboration with other Swedish export promoters, and that this is presented as part of Sweden’s overall export promotion.
  • The collaboration with ALMI has developed further, and now all the 20 regional ALMI companies around the country can arrange EKN counter guarantees and working capital guarantees. EKN, SEK, ALMI, the Swedish Trade Council and Swedfund have jointly developed the new product called the Export loan for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) who need working capital for exports. During the year, eight export loans were granted for amounts between SEK 1 and 1.5 million.
EKN shall strive to increase people’s interest and awareness of the agency’s activities, and will adapt its products and services to meet customer demand. EKN will invest in more guarantees to small and medium-sized enterprises, with the objective of acquiring at least 250 new customers during 2007.
  • During the year, there was a nationwide marketing initiative targeting 9,000 companies, 1,700 local bank branches and a few hundred export promoters. In all, EKN acquired 99 new customers during 2007, an increase of 34% from the previous year. EKN has also signed up 1,500 companies who want regular information from EKN, and 150 companies who want some form of personal contact with EKN. The objective of 250 new customers was not achieved, but we are nevertheless happy with the result of 99 new customers, reinforced by the large number of companies who have shown an interest in what EKN has to offer.
EKN shall promote Swedish exports by offering competitive export credit guarantees and investment guarantees. In the long run, this business must achieve break-even. EKN will foster competitive neutrality between different government-supported export credit and investment guarantee systems internationally.
  • EKN’s guarantees stand up well in comparison with those of other export credit agencies.
  • In recent years, EKN has achieved a financial surplus and reinforced its financial standing.
  • In the OECD and the EU, EKN has championed issues to do with competitive neutrality, including competition between companies in countries not covered by OECD rules and regulations.
EKN shall limit the risks in guarantees issued, by sharing the risks. EKN shall aim to spread the risks in their exposure, and limit the concentration of risks. In new transactions, due regard shall be taken of EKN’s current risk exposure.
  • As a result of EKN’s reinsurance business during the year, it has been possible to reduce the provision in the annual accounts by approximately. SEK 1.3 billion. In new transactions, an assessment is made of the concentration of risk.
EKN shall develop its loss prevention activities and recoveries, with the aim of limiting the losses, and of making the indemnification procedures more efficient, in collaboration with customers.
  • We have improved the chances of being able to take early loss prevention steps, by transferring all the loss prevention work to a customer team which takes responsibility for the entire transaction.
EKN shall continue to work ethically as regards the environment, corruption and social issues arising from the issuing of guarantees. EKN shall continue to keep customers informed about the Global Responsibility initiative, and the OECD guidelines for multinational companies. EKN shall comply with the rules and regulations laid down by the OECD concerning anti-corruption and environmental/social issues. EKN’s business activities shall contribute to Sweden’s primary objective – fair and sustainable global development. EKN shall also strive towards a sustainable debt situation. Continuing special regard shall be paid when issuing guarantees to Heavily Indebted Poor Countries.
  • The year started with new procedures in place for combating corruption more effectively in guaranteed transactions. During the year, EKN developed both its environmental policy, and its policy for combating unproductive expenditure in poor, heavily indebted countries. EKN’s policies to do with ethics have been brought together and summarised in ethical guidelines for EKN. Thanks to this year’s work, we have achieved this objective, but at the same time we can see that these issues will become ever more pressing in the future. During 2008, we will therefore continue to develop this, working with exporters and other organisations.
EKN shall aim for a good level of service to the public and to companies, through Service Level Agreements and a dialogue with users. All services that can be provided electronically with equal or greater cost-efficiency shall be supplied electronically and in a user-friendly way.
  • To judge by the customer survey carried out by EKN at the end of the year, companies are highly satisfied with the service offered by EKN. No fewer than 84% of the respondents gave EKN the overall grading of satisfied or very satisfied with EKN. The previous survey was carried out in 2005, where 78% of respondents gave that grading.
  • Premium indications, news and general country risk assessments are provided electronically. A system for processing guarantees has been delayed and remains under development.