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The OeKB group has been a reliable partner for exporters for over 70 years, for small and medium-sized companies as well as large corporations.
On one hand, there are export guarantees and on the other there is export financing – what is that actually all about? Export guarantees protect against political and economic risks in international business. Companies are protected against financial consequences if customers don’t pay for economic or political reasons. The export guarantee comes into effect for foreign investments if, for example, expropriation occurs due to a political decision. Export financing procedures on the other hand provide low-interest credit for exports and investments in Austria and abroad. More specifically, this means that OeKB can offer to refinance main banks, which makes trading capital available to companies for exports, credit for individual projects or foreign investment. Export financing of this kind has another special feature. It is also available for countries within the EU. Are there exclusion criteria in the risk assessment? We are subject to them due to possible distortions of competition. In order to avoid them, thanks to the particular interest rate conditions we offer, we focus on non-marketable risks. As a result, inter-
OeKB CEO Helmut Bernkopf Helmut Bernkopf was born in 1967 in Vienna. After finishing school, he went on to study Business Studies at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. He later returned to his alma mater to complete the General Management Programme and attain his postgraduate management training degree. He started his career at the beginning of the 1990s in the corporate finance department of Bank Austria. Following positions in London, Bucharest and Moscow, he became a member of the board of UniCredit Bank Austria. As part of this, he managed the global private banking agendas at the head office in Milan. Afterwards, as board member for corporate business, he managed the retail and commercial banking sectors of this major bank in Vienna. In 2016, Helmut Bernkopf went to work for Oesterreichische Kontrollbank, where in his capacity as CEO he took over responsibility for the export services business sector.