Export-Import Bank of the United States EXIM

President Franklin Roosevelt created the Export-Import Bank by executive order on February 2, 1934, initially to finance trade with the Soviet Union, and the Export-Import Bank Act of 1945 made it an independent agency. It has a five-member board appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, and it must be periodically reauthorized by Congress, most recently in December 2019 for seven years through December 31, 2026.

EXIM provides loans, loan guarantees, and export credit insurance when private lenders will not take on the risk, so that foreign buyers can purchase American aircraft, power equipment, machinery, and services, and small businesses can get paid for overseas sales. It charges fees and interest that have generally covered its costs, and in most years it has returned money to the Treasury. Most other major trading nations have similar export credit agencies, and EXIM often justifies its deals as matching their offers, particularly from China. The 2019 law created a program to help U.S. exporters compete with Chinese financing in sectors such as telecommunications and renewable energy.

The bank has long divided free-market conservatives, who call it corporate welfare because a large share of its support has gone to a few big companies such as Boeing, from business groups and many lawmakers of both parties who see it as essential to competing abroad. Its charter lapsed from July 1 to December 4, 2015, and it lacked a board quorum for large deals until 2019. In 2025 the administration emphasized deals tied to critical minerals, energy, and countering China, and its next reauthorization falls due at the end of 2026.