Export Working Capital Programs
The Export Working Capital program provides short-term financing guarantees on loans for specific export needs. The loans can be structured as revolving lines of credit or term loans, or be tied to a specific contract or cash cycle. During its relatively short existence, the program has been used almost exclusively for short-term credit of one year or less, with revolving lines constituting approximately two-thirds loan guarantees. Borrowers have generally been either manufacturers or wholesalers.
These export program guarantees replace the SBA's prior program that offered short-term revolving lines of credit (Export Working Lines of Credit Program). The EWCP is available only to small businesses that have been in business, although not necessary exporting, for at least one year. The loans can be used for pre-export costs of labor and materials, financing receivables from sales, or standby letters of credit used as performance bonds or payment guarantees to international buyers. The maximum guarantee is 90 percent up to $1.5 million.
More detailed EWCP information can be found on the SBA site at this page.
The Export Express SBA guaranty encourages lenders to make loans to small business exporters that they might not make on their own. The SBA's Export Express guaranty is 85 percent up to $150,000 and, since the SBA recently included additional 2,400 lenders, they've also increased the maximum loan under this program to $250,000, for which they will guarantee 75 percent.
More detailed information on the Export Express program can be found on the SBA site at this page.
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Warning
Unlike most SBA loan guarantee programs, the interest rate and loan fees charged by a conventional lender for an Export Working Capital Loan are not regulated by the SBA; the terms are entirely negotiable between the lender and borrower.
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Technical assistance in marketing and management is provided by SBA's U.S. Export Assistance Centers and the SBDC system.
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