Ex-Im Bank expands help to minority-owned businesses

   The Minority Business Development Agency and U.S. Export-Import Bank have expanded their partnership to help small minority- and women-owned companies obtain loans so they can have greater access to overseas export markets.
   MBDA Business Centers in Miami, Los Angeles, Detroit and Phoenix can now process loan applications for export financing as “originators” for the Ex-Im Bank’s Global Credit Express program, designed to help small businesses that don’t have access to conventional financing markets, the bank said.
   “In FY 2013 alone, Ex-Im Bank authorized $815.6 million to support 761 export transactions by small- and medium-sized minority- and/or women-owned businesses in the U.S. In other words, approximately one in five Ex-Im transactions directly benefited minority-owned or woman-owned small businesses,” said Ex-Im Bank Chairman and President Fred Hochberg in a statement.
   Through this new partnership, small and midsized companies may be eligible for a six- or 12-month revolving line of credit of up to $500,000 by way of the bank’s Global Credit Express program.