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Export credit agencies (ECAs) are public, quasi-public or private agencies that use taxpayers' money to provide loans, guarantees, credits and insurance to private corporations from their home country to assist them doing business overseas.

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BAE/ Rolls-Royce/ Airbus "may" have broken OECD Guidelines

ECGD destroyed records that would confirm one way or the other

5 November 2010

Under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, commercial confidentiality cannot be used by corporations as a reason for refusing to supply the names of their agents when requested by competent authorities. This ruling by the UK government was issued in November 2010, six years after The Corner House first submitted a Complaint against BAE, Rolls Royce and Airbus.

file iconComplaint
file iconFinal statement on Airbus
file iconFinal statement on Rolls Royce
file iconFinal statement on BAE

BAE terminates Government insurance for controversial Saudi arms deals
The Corner House and Campaign Against Arms Trade

29 May 2009

BAE Systems, the UK's largest arms company, has cancelled all its public insurance for its controversial arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The company's decision came to light as a result of legal correspondence between The Corner House/Campaign Against Arms Trade with the UK Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD) and subsequent parliamentary questions tabled by Vince Cable MP. By cancelling its insurance, BAE has let the ECGD off the hook from possible legal action over its support for the Saudi deals.

file iconECGD BAE Saudi PR

"Suspicions over BAE termination of government contract"
Peter Marshall, Newsnight

29 May 2009

BBC2 Television's Newsnight current affairs programme summarised its 8 minute broadcast: "In 2006, the British government scotched a serious fraud investigation into BAE's biggest deal, with Saudi Arabia. Now, Peter Marshall [Newsnight presenter] reveals that the company may have returned the favour. It has stopped a billion pound insurance contract which tied the government to the Saudi business." Information about stopping the insurance contract came to light as a result of legal correspondence between The Corner House and Campaign Against Arms Trade with the UK Export Credits Guarantee Department.

file iconNewsnight BAE ECGD transcript

Legal correspondence with Export Credits Guarantee Department

following up OECD Phase2bis report
solicitors Leigh Day & Co, and Export Credits Guarantee Department

30 March 2009

This exchange of letters between the UK's export credit agency and lawyers acting for The Corner House and Campaign Against Arms Trade revealed that BAE Systems had cancelled all its public insurance for its arms sales to Saudi Arabia with effect from 1 September 2008. These sales have been underwritten by the agency for more than two decades and accounted for half its portfolio.

file iconECGD follow-up OECD2bis

The UK Parliament's Trade and Industry Committee Inquiry into the Export Credits Guarantee Department
Memorandum from The Corner House
Dr Susan Hawley

25 February 2005

At the beginning of 2005, the UK Parliament's Trade and Industry Select Committee conducted an inquiry into the UK's Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD). During its inquiry, it interviewed the Government Minister responsible for the ECGD about the Department's watering down of its anti-bribery procedures following industry lobbying. In March 2005, the Committee published a report, Implementation of ECGD's Business Principles, that was highly critical of the changes the Department had made to its procedures. This document is The Corner House's submission to the Committee's inquiry.

Corner House Double Victory on UK Government Department's Anti-Bribery Rules and Public Interest Litigation
The Corner House

25 January 2005

In December 2004, The Corner House began legal proceedings against the Export Credits Guarantee Department, claiming it had weakened its anti-corruption rules after consulting corporations only. It was awarded the first-ever full "protective costs order" to challenge the changed rules: The Corner House would not have to pay the Department's legal costs, even if it lost, because the challenge was in the public interest.

file iconIndustry correspondence with ECGD

Exporters lobby ECGD to dilute its anti-corruption rules

13 January 2005

In December 2004, The Corner House instituted legal proceedings against the UK's Secretary of State for Trade and Industry as the government minister responsible for the Export Credits Guarantee Department.

file iconECGD-exporters correspondence

Underwriting Bribery
Export Credit Agencies and Corruption
Susan Hawley

15 December 2003

The taxpayer-backed export credit agencies of industrialised countries are underwriting the bribery and corruption of large, mainly Western, companies operating abroad.

file icon30.ECA Underwrite Bribery

Turning a Blind Eye
Corruption and the UK Export Credits Guarantee Department
Dr Susan Hawley

1 June 2003

Institutional practices within the taxpayer-funded UK Export Credits Guarantee Department have exacerbated bribery and corruption by Western companies.

file iconTurning Blind Eye

Still underwriting corruption?
The ECGD's recent record
Susan Hawley, The Corner House

23 May 2002

The UK Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD) has a long record of backing corrupt projects. New vetting procedures have loopholes, leaving the ECGD open to charges of complicity in corruption, contends this presentation at an NGO Seminar on Export Credit Reform held in the House of Commons, London.

Snouts in the Trough
Export Credit Agencies, Corporate Welfare and Policy Incoherence
Nicholas Hildyard

30 June 1999

Projects backed by export credit agencies (ECAs) are frequently environmentally destructive, socially oppressive or financially unviable. It is the poorest people in the countries where the projects are located who end up paying the bill. With rare exceptions, the major ECAs lack mandatory environmental and development standards, and are secretive and unaccountable.