Interview, Podcast, Webinar
26 August 2026
ECAs in Asia: Exploring frictions holding up ECA support
Region:
Asia-Pacific, Europe
Ahead of Asia 2026, TXF gathered a handful of ECAs to outline why international ECA support still struggles to land in Asia — and where it is starting to work.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- Why Asia is not a liquidity problem. The region has capital. The bottleneck is coordination: sequential approvals, late ECA involvement, and financing that chases the contract instead of shaping it.
- What actually holds deals up. Different ECA processes on reinsurance and co-insurance. Ministries, central banks and defence stakeholders lining up one after another. Borrowers wanting local currency, not dollars. Thin understanding of guarantee structures. Aggressive pricing in a liquid market.
- Why this is still an Asian ECA market. KEXIM, JBIC and NEXI set a lot of the pace. European ECAs are present, but they are not writing the rulebook.
- Where international ECAs are finding traction. SACE moving upstream before there is an export contract. SFIL opening large-ticket refinancing beyond Bpifrance to other EU ECAs. Export Finance Australia closing local-currency guarantees, including a recent Vietnam deal with HSBC. KUKE looking to Central Asia rather than forcing East Asia.
- What “available” really means. Cover on paper is not the same as a structure a borrower, bank and ministry will actually execute.
Who’s on it: Carsten Boerler, SERV · Katharina Kowalska, KUKE · Anne, SFIL · Flavio Castri, SACE · Dool Crawford, Export Finance Australia · moderated by Paula Gill, J.P. Morgan.
The full conversation continues at Asia 2026: Agency, Energy & Infrastructure Finance, 20–22 October 2026, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. View attendees here.
