Chinese enterprises often purchase export credit insurance (including overseas investment insurance) to obtain compensation for losses caused by commercial or political risks related to overseas projects. Against the background of the epidemic, with the completion and launch of Belt and Road projects, the issue of export credit insurance requirements for enterprises going abroad has become increasingly important.
The complexities of ECA
Due to the complexity of cross - border transactions, especially foreign infrastructure and international engineering projects, claims under export credit insurance (including notification of potential losses, formal claims, loss assessment and claim settlement, and subsequent recovery, etc.) are extremely complex, mainly manifested in the following aspects.
Numerous participants: There are at least the insured, the policyholder, the insurance company, the exporter under the commercial contract, the project company, the investor, relevant government agencies, as well as local and foreign multilateral lawyers, audit institutions, investigation and recovery channels that provide mediation services for all parties.
Requires a lot of documents: A complete set of project documents is required, including contract documents such as commercial contracts and investment contracts, as well as legal documents prepared during the project implementation process, and also documents related to the occurrence, communication and negotiation of risk events, and the loss situation.
High work requirements: On the part of the insured, it is necessary to promptly discover and communicate risks, take effective loss - reduction measures, resolve potential contract disputes or even investment disputes, and coordinate work with local and foreign governments; on the part of the insurance company, it is necessary to sort out a large number of documents, understand the project situation and foreign risks, and promptly respond to all the requirements of the insured. Each project is unique, and there is no one - size - fits - all method that can be easily applied.
Long - time - consuming work: Although the insurance policy stipulates a settlement period of several months, due to a large number of investigations, some of which even involve litigation, the actual time is often longer. This is both due to the complexity of cross - border projects and because a large part of the projects also involve time - consuming loss - reduction exclusion work and cannot be considered solely from the perspective of maximizing project benefits.
In export credit insurance claims, companies need to avoid two extreme trends. Completely ignoring contact with the insurance company, blindly relying on their own response capabilities, not notifying the insurance company of losses until the project completely fails and then filing a claim; the other extreme is completely relying on the instructions of the insurance company, continuing despite the inevitable difficulties and pressures faced by the project, which may lead to the loss of favorable loss - reduction opportunities and cause irreparable losses.
Key points of ECA
More specifically, claims under export credit insurance activities include four main parts.
Notification of Potential Losses
The notification of potential losses is usually a prerequisite for a formal claim, that is, the insured promptly submits a notification of potential losses to the insurance company that issued the policy.
Formal Claim
After receiving the notification of potential losses, the insured can promptly file a claim based on the risk and loss situation.
Loss Assessment and Claim Settlement
The insurance company will make a decision on claim settlement based on the claim and supporting documents submitted by the insured and its own investigation.
Cooperation in the Recovery Process
Subrogation is one of the characteristics that distinguish export credit insurance from ordinary property insurance. In export credit insurance, the losses underwritten by the insurer are usually losses caused by commercial contracts or investment projects. When a loss occurs, there is a corresponding liable party, either the counterparty of the contract or the host country government that undertakes a broad - sense security obligation for the project. Naturally, the insured will cooperate with the insurance company in exercising the right of subrogation.
After deducting the necessary recovery expenses, the recovery income is distributed between the insurance company and the insured according to the proportion of the amount paid and the project loss.
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