Memorandum of Understanding signing between NEXI and 13 Financial Institutions, including Crédit Agricole CIB

Crédit Agricole CIB Tokyo Branch signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI) on June 7, 2019. The MOU concretizes the cooperation between NEXI and financial institutions around the utilization of infrastructure funds and project bonds. The signing ceremony was held at The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) in the presence of Minister Hiroshige Seko, along with the delegations of 12 other financial institutions.

The MOU aims to build a framework between NEXI and financial institutions to work together in laying the groundwork for structuring and issuance of infrastructure funds and project bonds that would benefit from NEXI’s insurance cover. Through this initiative, METI and NEXI would like to attract funding from new financial actors, including institutional investors, amid growing demands for infrastructure projects in developing countries. As an active NEXI covered loans arranger in the Japan market, Crédit Agricole CIB is committed to contributing pro-actively to this initiative.

Crédit Agricole CIB is very active in project bonds, ranking #5 among global arrangers in the league tables. Crédit Agricole CIB is a global leader in export-credit supported bonds and has been the Structuring Agent on over $7 billion of issuance, including the inaugural transactions for both The Export-Import Bank of the United States and UK Export Finance. In January 2019, the Bank arranged an innovative and long-term export credit financing by way of private placement note guaranteed by KEXIM (The Export–Import Bank of Korea). The transaction received strong interests from private placement investors and was successfully placed without the need of any external credit ratings. Crédit Agricole CIB believes this can be further extended for NEXI insurance cover to attract a wider range of institutional investors.