Everyone focuses on the 85% that gets financed. The 15% that doesn’t is where deals get structured.
Buyer credit financing usually lands well with exporters. ATRAFIN pays you in full on shipment, your overseas buyer repays us over five to seven years, and the credit risk sits with us, backed by EXIM Bank.
Then someone does the arithmetic on the 85% and asks the obvious question: who pays the other 15%?
The buyer pays it, in cash
EXIM’s medium-term programs are built around a minimum 15% cash payment from the buyer. It isn’t a fee or a cost passed to the exporter — it’s the buyer’s own money, and it’s a structural requirement of the program, not a negotiating position.
The buyer’s cash and the financed facility arrive together. You are paid in full on shipment.
85% is a ceiling, not a guarantee
This is where otherwise well-prepared exporters get caught. EXIM sets the level of support at the lesser of 85% of the value of eligible goods and services in the export contract, or 100% of the U.S. content within them.
So if your U.S. content is 90%, you finance 85%. If it’s 70%, you finance 70% — and the buyer’s cash requirement rises to 30%. Foreign-origin goods shipped from the U.S. can generally count toward eligible contract value; goods that never ship from the U.S. are excluded entirely.
Which means “how much down payment does my buyer need?” is a sourcing question in disguise. Your bill of materials answers it before anyone applies for financing.
Where the buyer's 15% comes from
Not necessarily cash reserves. In practice it comes from one of four places:
- The buyer’s own cash — cleanest option, strongest credit signal.
- A local bank facility or existing credit line — common in emerging markets, where short-term local borrowing is available even when medium-term dollar debt isn’t.
What it can’t be is financed by EXIM. That boundary is firm.
The 15% is a feature, not friction
A buyer able to put 15% of a capital purchase in cash on the table has told you the project is real, the budget is approved, and someone internally owns the outcome. A buyer who can’t fund 15% is unlikely to service seven years of amortising dollar debt.
The down payment does real underwriting work before a credit file is ever opened — and it’s part of why a lender can take a five to seven year view on a credit a commercial bank would decline.
Two practical notes
- Quote 85/15 from the first conversation, and know your U.S. content percentage before you price. Buyers who hear about the cash requirement late read it as a change in terms.
- Raise EXIM’s exposure fee early. It’s priced on buyer credit, country risk, and tenor, and depending on structure, it can often be financed within the facility rather than paid in cash at closing.
The Bottom Line
The 15% isn’t a gap in the financing. It’s the part of the structure that makes the other 85% possible — and because it’s driven by your U.S. content, it’s largely determined by decisions made long before you approach a lender.
ATRAFIN structures EXIM-backed buyer credit and pre-export financing for U.S. exporters and their overseas customers. If you have a transaction in front of you and want to know how the 85/15 split would fall, get in touch.