Iran signs deal with Finland’s export insurer

Baku, Azerbaijan, May 18

By Fatih Karimov – Trend:

The Export Guarantee Fund of Iran (EGFI) has signed a cooperation document with Finnvera, Finland’s official export credit agency.

The memorandum of understanding was signed by Kamal Seyyed Ali, head of the EGFI and Topi Vesteri, deputy CEO and group chief credit officer for Finnvera, on the sidelines of the Berne Union Spring Meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, the Iranian Industry, Mine and Trade Ministry’s SHATA news website reported.

Under the MoU, the parties will cooperate in exchange of economic, banking, and insurance information.

The memorandum also envisages cooperation in the fields of reinsurance and joint insurance in third countries as well.

The EGFI has signed similar documents with Germany’s Hermes, which offers export credit guarantee (ECG), and Swiss Export Risk Insurance (SERV) as well as the Hungarian Export Credit Insurance Plc (MEHIB), the Portuguese export credit agency(COSEC), Sri Lanka Export Credit Insurance Corporation (Slecic) and Brazilian Guarantees and Fund Managements Agency (ABGF) in recent months.

During the meeting, Seyyed Ali called for upgrading Iran’s risk rating, saying the current rate is not satisfactory.

Vesteri, who is also the president of the Berne Union, said the related committees would consider positive factors of Iran’s economy for assessing the risk ranking in the future.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has classified Iran at Level 6, though Iranian officials expect an upgrade to Level 4.

The Berne Union, also known as the International Union of Credit and Investment Insurers, is an international non-profit association and community for the global export credit and investment insurance industry. Iran became a member of the Berne Union in May 2016.