Swiss Export Risk Insurance SERV, Project Finance And Capital Markets - A Challenging Combination

I. Introduction

Insurance products of the Swiss Export Risk Insurance SERV («SERV»), the Export Credit Agency («ECA») of Switzerland, have become increasingly popular as a component of large project finance transactions. In Decem- ber 2018, the significant increase of the coverage volume prompted the Swiss Federal Council to increase the coverage ceiling from CHF 14 billion to CHF 16 billion to ensure that SERV could continue to meet the needs of businesses across a wide range of sectors by protecting Swiss exporters from defaults of theirclients and facilitating export financing through the provision of insurance to lenders. Moreover, large scale transactions have become more common. Outside of the exporting industry, still only a relatively narrow circle of bankers, experts and lawyers are familiar with ECA covered transactions, including SERV insured transactions. Furthermore, even though ECAs, including SERV and its predecessor organization Export Risk Guarantee