Helaba and AKA team up to serve interests of German exporters

• Innovative solution for export finance in current pandemic situation
• SmaTiX forms basis for financing solutions with ECA-backed buyer credit transactions featuring efficient, streamlined application procedure
• Range of lending options for entire customer spectrum of export industry, also expressly aimed at smaller tickets for SME and savings bank customers
• Cooperation provides customers with a fast, digital solution combined with active advisory services from their banking partner

With immediate effect, Helaba Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen is also using its own access as a bank to the export finance portal SmaTiX (Small Ticket Express), a fully automated and digital solution developed by AKA for standardised, low-volume export credit facilities. Thanks to this cooperation, both AKA and Helaba are able to strengthen their existing, successful collaboration in global export and trade finance. SmaTiX forms the basis for financing solutions with ECA-backed buyer credit transactions featuring an efficient, streamlined application procedure.

Both cooperation partners are bringing their decades of expertise to bear in order to meet their customers' financing needs even more effectively with this enhanced range of services. In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, having a digital process in place represents a reliable, forward-looking solution. For the German export industry, it is essential that customers abroad have access to long-term investment finance, especially if locally arranged facilities are not (or no longer) available due to the crisis. SmaTiX provides German exporters with reliable financing offers for export transactions in the small-ticket segment with an application procedure that is fast and straightforward. The solution offered by Helaba and AKA fills a gap in the market and is geared to the entire export finance customer base. It is also expressly designed for smaller tickets with order volumes of between one and ten million EUR or USD, serving the interests of SME and savings bank customers.

"Since the advent of Covid-19, the global economy has undergone dramatic change. As a Landesbank serving numerous corporate clients with global activities and as a strategic partner of the German savings banks, whose clientele is dominated by small and mid-sized companies, there is particularly keen demand for our products and services," explains Heinz Boiger, Executive Director, Structured Trade & Export Finance at Helaba. "Our corporate clients will be able to experience the benefits of our new joint solution right away as it is integrated within our broad range of Corporate Banking products. Our client and export competence in global export and trade finance is complemented by AKA's innovative digital solution in order to facilitate more rapid decision-making and even more precisely tailored financing solutions. Together, we are investing in the digital future of export finance".

"We have noticed that the pandemic has led to increased demand from exporters for export finance solutions. In many cases, receiving a financing offer at the right moment could be the deciding factor in clinching an export deal. The key for a customer to being involved at an early stage in negotiations with the exporter is getting advice from the global trade & export finance advisor at their principal bank," says Armin Wittemer, Team Head of Digital Export Finance at AKA. "That is why we are delighted to have successfully concluded a cooperation agreement with Helaba."

With immediate effect, advisors in Helaba's Corporate Banking as well as Savings Bank & SME departments are able to use AKA's portal and directly submit lending requests during their consultation with the exporter.