This enhanced competition and liberalized coverage have culminated in a buyer's market, according to Ettien, who formerly worked at Atradius. “It is a very soft market right now, with many new insurer entrants,” he adds. “Policies can be customized to buyer needs. Consequently, we're seeing much higher volumes of business.”

With regard to this, Baltimore-based Euler Hermes, part of the giant German insurer Allianz Corporation, recently unveiled a way for its insureds to increase limits beyond their existing policies. “Say we provided $2 million in limits to a customer, which is a perfectly fine limit during most of the year,” said Jochen Duemler, Euler Hermes, CEO for the Americas.

“During the holiday season, however, this customer's business peaks to $3.6 million, requiring higher limits for just this period. To save on the premium, the customer doesn't want $3.6 million in limits for the full year. But, it definitely needs more coverage at Christmastime. We are now able to write a second policy to absorb the additional $1.6 million in credit risk during the three-month period.” The product is called CAP.

Euler Hermes also has put on the shelf an excess of loss policy for insureds wanting to retain a significant portion of first dollar credit losses internally. The insurance would attach at $1 million in aggregated losses or higher, and is tailored to the policyholder's needs.

These policy enhancements and additional innovations—several insurance carriers will blend export credit risks with political risks in a single policy—are enticing buyers back to the market. Insurance broker, Marsh reports that premium volume has risen steadily over the last few years, was up 7 percent in 2012, and is currently in excess of $9 billion worldwide.

Marketing must also take a bow for the increase. “Other than the changes in the policy itself, insurers have made considerable investments in people on the street to promote the product,” said Jim Baumgartner, senior vice president in Marsh's trade credit practice. “We also have people dedicated to companies with a global footprint needing coverage. There is definitely more excitement about export trade credit than there has been for some time.”

Difference in a Decade A decade ago, there was excitement, too. At the time, another soft market prevailed, but buyers tended to be European companies. US concerns were focused domestically on sales, and had little concern over the financial viability of customers. Currently U.S. companies are nearly as apt as their European counterparts to consider the insurance, given their wider presence overseas.

Interestingly, for many companies, the cancellable product still makes sense. “The companies turning to the big three insurers are essentially smaller concerns that have limited credit risk expertise in-house,” Ettien said. “Carriers like Atradia, Coface and Euler Hermes have dedicated information-gathering teams that dig into the credit-worthiness of policyholders' customers.”

This information cuts both ways. It assists the carriers to halt limits when it appears a debtor company is in financial straits, and it helps insureds understand which prospective customers might be less likely to pay, based on the carrier information.

“For really large customers with sophisticated credit departments and dozens of credit managers, the non-cancellable insurance makes more sense,” Ettien said. “The deductibles are much higher (than cancellable policies), which keeps the insured's skin in the game and everyone honest. The carrier trusts that the insured has the sophistication to know its customers' financial stability.” Not that the non-cancellable limits are exactly that. “Insurers can still cancel the limits, but with far more reasonable notice—at least 30 days and in some cases 60 and even 90 days,” said Ettien. “There's wiggle room.”