Speakers

Mr. James C. Cruse has served as Acting President and Chairman since February 2025. He has spent the bulk of his 50-year career at EXIM helping the boards of directors evolve the Bank's strategic mission of supporting U.S. exports and jobs, and design the programs, policies, and international negotiating approaches to fulfill that mission. The Office of Policy Analysis and International Relations addresses these responsibilities through its two
divisions - Policy Analysis and Planning and International Relations.

Cruse joined EXIM in 1970 as a country economist and moved to the policy side when then-Chairman William Casey created the policy unit in 1975. He was named to his current post in the 2002 Bank-wide reorganization. Since joining EXIM, Cruse has had a variety of assignments and contributed to many of the policy and program developments which lie at the core of today's EXIM. These include:

• The mid-70's inter-agency crafting of a logical role for export credit agencies after the collapse of the Bretton Woods fixed exchange rate system;
• The mid-80's development of a revamped program structure in response to the Latin American debt crisis and the retreat of commercial banks from export finance;
• The early 90's creation of a securitized guarantee; and
• Over 25 years of OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) negotiations which have reduced the average subsidy of EXIM activity from nearly 10 cents per dollar of activity to 1-2 cents — including the 2009 Buyer Premia Agreement and the 2011 ASU.
• The EXIM policy and program response to the 2008 financial crises and the ensuing Basel III regulation.