export credit agencies (ecas) play a role of central importance in international trade and investment flows. ecas are a vital part of the infrastructure supporting trade and have often been considered to be a critical component in a nation's export-led growth strategy. the basic role of an eca is to support and encourage exports and outward investment by insuring international trade and investment transactions and, in some cases, providing finance directly. one of the most common and most challenging problems that ecas face is what to do about small exporters. small exporters are a significant and politically sensitive subject in most countries for various reasons and not necessarily because they make a substantial or potentially substantial contribution to total exports. facilities tailored to small exporters may be costly to operate largely because of diseconomies of scale: administrative costs per contract may be as high as those for larger exporters, yet income per contract is ...
