Local Cost under Short Term Insurance Policies and Working Capital Guarantees

12/7/18

Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback” (OMB Control Number: TBD)

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: Local Cost under Short Term Insurance Policies and Working Capital Guarantees

PURPOSE: The purpose of the survey is to learn more about the types of local costs that U.S. exporters incur in their EXIM-supported transactions.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS: U.S. exporters whose export transactions have benefitted from EXIM short-term insurance and/or working capital guarantee support during fiscal year 2018 through the present (i.e., starting 10/1/17 through 11/21/18).

TYPE OF COLLECTION: (Check one)

[ ] Customer Comment Card/Complaint Form [ ] Customer Satisfaction Survey

[ ] Usability Testing (e.g., Website or Software [ ] Small Discussion Group

[ ] Focus Group [X] Other: Customer survey on relevance of local costs in EXIM-supported transactions

CERTIFICATION:

I certify the following to be true:

1. The collection is voluntary.

2. The collection is low-burden for respondents and low-cost for the Federal Government.

3. The collection is non-controversial and does not raise issues of concern to other federal agencies.

4. The results are not intended to be disseminated to the public.

5. Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions.

6. The collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions from respondents who have experience with the program or may have experience with the program in the future.

Helene Walsh, Vice President, Policy Analysis

To assist review, please provide answers to the following question:

Personally Identifiable Information:

1. Is personally identifiable information (PII) collected? [ ] Yes [X] No

2. If Yes, will any information that is collected be included in records that are subject to the Privacy Act of 1974? [ ] Yes [ ] No

3. If Yes, has an up-to-date System of Records Notice (SORN) been published? [ ] Yes [ ] No

Gifts or Payments:

Is an incentive (e.g., money or reimbursement of expenses, token of appreciation) provided to participants? [ ] Yes [ X ] No

BURDEN HOURS

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time	Burden
Individual Customers	963	10 min	160.5 hours
Totals			160.5 hours

FEDERAL COST:

Estimated review time per response is 10 minutes. The total estimated time is 9,630 minutes or 160.5 hours.

The average hourly wage $42.50, resulting in $6,821.25 annual wages.

With benefits and overhead cost of 20%, federal cost per hour is $51.00.

The estimated annual cost to the federal government is: $8,185.50

If you are conducting a focus group, survey, or plan to employ statistical methods, please provide answers to the following questions:

The selection of your targeted respondents

1. Do you have a customer list or something similar that defines the universe of potential respondents and do you have a sampling plan for selecting from this universe? [X] Yes [ ] No

If the answer is yes, please provide a description of both below (or attach the sampling plan). If the answer is no, please provide a description of how you plan to identify your potential group of respondents and how you will select them?

The universe is U.S. exporters whose export transactions have benefitted from EXIM short-term insurance and/or working capital guarantee support during fiscal year 2018 through the present (i.e., starting 10/1/17 through 11/21/18). This universe is comprised of only those EXIM customers who have delivered/shipped EXIM supported goods and services to a foreign buyer during the referenced timeframe, and only those for whom EXIM has reliable contact information (i.e., an email address is listed). EXIM has identified 963 U.S. exporters that meet these criteria. EXIM will survey the entire population of 963 exporters to maximize the number of responses.

Administration of the Instrument

1. How will you collect the information? (Check all that apply)

[ ] Web-based or other forms of Social Media

[ ] Telephone

[ ] In-person

[ ] Mail

[X] Other: E-mail surveys

2. Will interviewers or facilitators be used? [ ] Yes [ X ] No

Please make sure all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the request.

The survey has been staged online here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/STlocalcost

Alternatively, please see the draft below:

Survey Invitation

Dear (Customer Name),

EXIM is currently exploring the demand for coverage of local costs under the short-term (ST) insurance and the working capital guarantee programs. Local costs are costs that originate in the foreign buyer’s country (e.g., taxes/duties, local installation/construction, local delivery/transportation, and local capital goods).

We would like to invite you to answer a 4-minute survey to provide EXIM with a better understanding of the incidence and nature of local costs in export transactions typically supported by EXIM’s short-term insurance and/or working capital guarantee programs. You have been selected to respond to this survey because our records indicate that one or more of your export transactions have recently benefitted from either EXIM short-term insurance or working capital guarantee support. The responses to this survey will be used purely for information-gathering purposes.

If you would be willing to share your experience with us, please click on the link below to start the survey.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/STlocalcost

The survey will close on [30 days after start of survey].

Thank you for your participation.

Sincerely,

The Staff and Management of EXIM Bank

Survey Draft

1. Do you ever incur local costs as part of your transactions? (Answering “No” will complete the survey.)

   • Yes / No
     [With optional explanation box]

2. If yes, how often do you incur local costs in your transactions?

   • Rarely – around 10% of the time / Sometimes – around 30% of the time / Often – more than half the time / All the Time – 90+% of the time / We do not incur local costs
     [With optional explanation box]

3. What types of local costs do you incur (e.g., taxes, installation, construction, delivery, transportation, etc.)?

   • Taxes / Installation / Construction / Delivery / Transportation / Other (Free text) / We do not incur local costs
     [Can select more than one option and with optional explanation box]

4. When you incur local costs, what is the approximate value and percentage of local costs in your transactions (e.g., a $50,000 sale requires $5,000 (10% of the total value of the transaction) of local costs for local delivery)?

   • Free text

5. What financing/insurance coverage options are available for the local costs in your EXIM transactions (e.g., do you self-insure, obtain private insurance, etc.)?

   • Free text

6. Are the financing/insurance coverage options currently available for the local costs in your EXIM transactions sufficient to meet your needs? Please explain.

• Yes / No
  [With explanation box]

Thank you very much for your time and participation. Please click "Done" to complete the survey.

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