Openness Policy
EKF’s main task is to help create economic growth in Denmark. We do this by insuring Danish companies against the commercial and political financial risks that may be associated with trading and investing internationally. EKF thus benefits not only the companies that we help but also the Danish economy.
EKF is owned by the Danish state. This means that it is the politicians who determine the tasks that EKF should undertake and set out the conditions under which EKF works. Our aim is to meet these conditions and carry out our tasks as effectively as possible. We do this by making relevant solutions available to our customers and by being a competent, reliable, confidential and flexible partner for Danish business and industry.
As a state-owned institution it is important that that the way EKF fulfils our mission and administers the money made available to us by the Danish state for this purpose is trans-parent to the Danish society.
Therefore EKF wishes to offer all stakeholders the possibility of acquainting themselves with EKF´s business and finances in a manner which is clear and easy to understand. We do this by publishing a range of information about ourselves and the transactions in which we participate.
We strive to be open and accommodating to anyone wishing to know more about our activities and to regularly meet with various stakeholders to provide information about our work.
Available information
In order to give stakeholders the opportunity to gain insight into EKF, we publish the following:
Regular reports:
• Annual report on EKF’s finances, goals and activities (published in April)
• Six-monthly announcement (published in September)
• CSR report based on the principles of the Global Reporting Initiative and the UN Global Compact (published in April)
Information on EKF:
• Strategic focus areas
• EKF’s financial goals
• Board of Directors’ fees
• Management’s total remuneration, pensions, bonuses and severance agreements*
• EKF employees’ total remuneration, pensions and bonus programme*
• Staff and training expenses accumulated for the year*
• Entertainment expenses accumulated for the year*
• Staff benefits
• Rules on share-dealing (Board, Management and employees)
• Rules on competence to act (Board, Management and employees)
Information on EKF’s transactions:
• Country policy
• Number of customers and distribution by sector*
• Overall guarantee liability broken down by sector and geography
• Claims*
• Information on individual guarantee cases:
- Danish company
- Project description
- EKF product type
- Buyer
- Buyer’s country
- Lending bank
- Borrowing bank / guarantor
- Environmental category
- Date of issuance
- Credit period
- Initial liability (DKK mill.)
- Export loan
Policies, etc.
• Openness Policy
• Business and Ethics at Eksport Kredit Fonden
• CSR Policy
• Environmental Policy**
The Openness Policy includes all EKF´s business transactions. Certain types of business transactions will, however, be disclosed as part of accumulated figures rather than as in-formation about individual transactions.
This applies to for instance products and schemes where EKF is assisting Danish companies via the private market. In these cases EKF might disclose confidential information regarding the list of customers and the future business activities of private companies.
Furthermore, EKF can exempt specific projects from the requirement of Openness in case of special safety or competitive considerations. If this is the case, an announcement will be published stating that an exception has been made.
Confidentiality
As a result of our transactions and cooperation with Danish business and industry, EKF often gains detailed insight into confidential and price-sensitive information on our customers’ and their partners’ financial and business-strategic circumstances. If this information became openly available to everyone, this could damage both EKF’s customers and the Danish economy.
It is therefore a crucial condition for EKF to be able to meet its objectives that customers and partners can confidently and confidentially make all necessary information available for EKF’s case-handling. For the same reason, EKF is exempt from the Danish Act on public access to documents in public files.
In order to achieve the right balance between the customers’ need for confidentiality and the possibility of public insight, EKF will maintain complete discretion concerning all customer and transaction details up to 60 days following the issuance of a final guarantee. After this period selected information (exporter, buyer, sector, initial liability, etc.) will be published. All other information will continue to be subject to complete discretion.
Entry into force
The Openness Policy will enter into force on 1 July 2010 and will then be amended as and when required. Projects and transactions applied for prior to this date are not covered by the openness principles. The Openness Policy means that after 1 July 2010 publishing of specific guarantee details will be a requirement for the issuance of a final guarantee in the same way as e.g. approval of a project’s environmental impacts.
* To be published in EKF's annual report 2011.
** Under preparation. To be published in 2011