For thirty seven years, the Indian Exim Bank has been providing financial assistance to Indian exporters and importers of goods and services. One of Exim Bank’s major functions is to support and protect exports. Most of this happens in collaboration with the Development Partnership Administration (DPA) of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) that was created in 2012. The bank has successfully expanded its area of influence, its range of products and its investment. What is yet to be understood is, how far the bank has come to be financially, and socio environmentally responsible?

The purpose of this study is twofold –

The first purpose is to study the Lines of Credit (LoC) extended by the Bank. While the Bank offers an array of financial services, this report will restrict to only one such financial service, i.e. the LoC. The report attempts to understand how far the Indian Exim Bank has come in showing financial and socio-environmental responsibility.

It poses two questions- a) Does the bank conduct a thorough risk assessment of its borrowers before giving out credit? This question is important because like the rest of the Indian banking system, the Indian Exim Bank is also grappling with a large non-performing assets (NPAs) problem. As on March 31, 2019, the Bank had accumulated 116.78 billion worth of gross NPAs, which were 11.34 per cent of its total loans and advances to that date. It is higher than the industry average of 9.1 percent b) Does the Bank enforce any set of social and environmental compliances to be followed by the borrower to ensure that its money is used to benefit the people and the environment, and is not to their detriment?

The second purpose of this report is to make the public aware of the activities of the Indian Exim Bank and thus, hold the Bank responsible and accountable for its investments because, at the end of the day, the money that the Bank is investing is, in fact, people’s money.

This report is a preliminary study of the operational LoCs extended through the Indian Exim Bank, and is divided in five sections. First section is about the Indian Exim Bank. The second one is an analysis of the LoCs. Third case studies. Fourth is conclusion and the last section is suggested way forward.