What an EXIM long-term financing application actually consists of, how the Form EIB 95-10 attachments A through K fit together, and where the feasibility study sits in a corporate filing versus a limited-recourse project finance filing. Written for a credit officer, sourced to EXIM's published guidance.
An application to the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) for a medium- or long-term loan or guarantee is not a single document. It is the Application for Long-Term Loan or Guarantee (Form EIB 95-10) plus a defined set of attachments, and — for anything relying on future cash flow — a body of supporting analysis that EXIM's underwriting expects to already exist. The feasibility study is part of that supporting analysis. It is not itself a numbered EXIM form, and understanding that single fact prevents the most common structural mistake sponsors make. This page walks the attachment set, distinguishes a corporate or structured filing from a limited-recourse project finance filing, sets out the Structured and Project Finance Division's "bankable" checklist, and explains the completeness review, the Preliminary Project Letter timeline, and who pays for whose consultants. For the service overview, see the EXIM feasibility study hub.
The base instrument is the Application for Long-Term Loan or Guarantee, Form EIB 95-10. Attached to it is a set of standardized attachments, each with its own form number, that capture the parts of a transaction relevant to a particular structure. A sponsor does not file every attachment; you file the base application and the attachments that match your transaction, together with the credit and project evidence behind them.
Where the feasibility study lives depends on how the deal is underwritten. In a limited-recourse project finance filing it is central: EXIM's approach expects a completed feasibility study to exist before you apply. In a corporate or structured filing it supports Attachment G, Credit Information, by evidencing that the projected cash flow the borrower relies on is real. Either way, no EXIM form is titled "feasibility study" and no template is published; the study is judged on whether it answers the questions the underwriting will ask. This is covered further on the Attachment F explainer.
The table below walks the eleven attachments to Form EIB 95-10 — the exact titles, their form numbers, what each covers, when each applies, and who prepares it. Note that Attachment F is the Foreign and Domestic Project Finance attachment, not a feasibility-study form; third-party articles frequently get this wrong, and the practical cost of that error is a misassembled filing.
| Attachment | Form number | What it covers | When it applies | Who prepares it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attachment A | EIB 95-10a | Large Aircraft Transactions | Financing of large commercial aircraft | Applicant / exporter, with aircraft finance counsel |
| Attachment B | EIB 95-10b | Environmental Screening Document | Broadly, to screen a transaction's environmental profile | Applicant, supported by an environmental consultant |
| Attachment C | EIB 95-10c | Tied Aid Capital Project Fund | Transactions seeking tied aid support | Applicant / exporter |
| Attachment D | EIB 95-10d | Anti-lobbying Declaration / Disclosure | Generally, as a required declaration | Applicant |
| Attachment E | EIB 22-08 | Used Equipment Questionnaire | Where the transaction includes used equipment | Exporter / applicant |
| Attachment F | EIB 95-10f | Foreign and Domestic Project Finance | Limited-recourse project finance (foreign or domestic) | Sponsor and its financial and legal advisers |
| Attachment G | EIB 95-10g | Credit Information | Corporate and structured (non-project-finance) transactions | Borrower / applicant, with its accountants |
| Attachment H | EIB 22-09 | Co-financing with a Foreign Export Credit Agency | Where another ECA co-finances the transaction | Applicant, coordinated with the co-financing ECA |
| Attachment I | EIB 22-05 | Domestic Financing (Make More in America / domestic transactions) | MMIA and other domestic transactions | Domestic borrower / applicant |
| Attachment J | EIB 22-02 | Pre-Export Payments Questionnaire | Transactions involving pre-export payments | Exporter / applicant |
| Attachment K | EIB 22-04 | Form of Fee Letter | To document the fee arrangement | Applicant, per EXIM's prescribed form |
Attachment titles and form numbers from the Application for Long-Term Loan or Guarantee (Form EIB 95-10) and EXIM's Forms and Applications library. "When it applies" and "Who prepares it" are practical guidance, not a quotation from the forms. EXIM requirements change; confirm current guidance and the exact attachment set for your transaction with EXIM or your lender before relying on any summary, including this one.
The most consequential decision before drafting is which of two underwriting paths the transaction sits on, because it changes which attachment governs and how heavy the evidence burden is.
Here an established corporation is the borrower. In a straightforward corporate credit, repayment rests on the company's existing profitability and liquidity, evidenced through Attachment G, Credit Information. A "structured" transaction is a variation: the borrower is still an established corporation, but repayment may rely on future cash flow in addition to existing profitability and liquidity. In that case EXIM requires the same information as Attachment G, plus data describing the proposed structure and the security package. The more the credit depends on cash flow that does not yet exist, the more a feasibility study has to carry.
Here repayment depends primarily on the project's own future cash flow rather than on an existing balance sheet, and the filing is governed by Attachment F. EXIM's Structured and Project Finance Division subjects these transactions to the extensive underwriting typical of a large project financing — technical, environmental, market, financial, legal and insurance due diligence. That is a materially higher evidence burden than a corporate filing, and it is why the "bankable" checklist below has to be satisfied before you apply. A domestic manufacturing project can travel either path: as corporate credit under Attachment I, or as limited-recourse project finance under Attachment F. See the project finance feasibility study page for the criteria EXIM applies to the limited-recourse structure and the MMIA feasibility study page for the domestic-corporate path.
The Division has operated since 1993 and has supported more than 83 projects across 36 countries, representing over $37 billion in loans. Its guidance is explicit that a project is ready to apply only once it can stand up to underwriting. In practice that resolves into the following pre-application checklist:
The Attachment F criteria also expect construction under a lump-sum turnkey EPC contract with a reputable firm (or sponsor completion undertakings where that structure is absent), an appropriate allocation of risk, a sensitivity analysis that still produces a debt-service coverage ratio sufficient to service the debt uninterrupted across its term, a total project cost comparable to similar projects for that market, market-based product unit pricing, and — where relevant — devaluation risk substantially mitigated, for example through hard-currency revenues.
A project finance application is submitted as the standard EXIM long-term application plus an electronic copy — or access to an approved data room — of the Attachment F materials, marked either "Foreign Buyer Project Finance Application" or "Domestic Project Finance Application" as appropriate. From receipt, three timeline points matter:
After the PPL, EXIM negotiates toward final commitment and may continue using its financial and other consultants until Board authorization and final documentation. The terms available at that stage were largely set by the quality of the information available at application, which is the whole argument for arriving complete.
EXIM's consultants review the sponsor's study; they do not replace it. EXIM engages its own independent outside legal counsel, independent engineers, insurance advisers and a market consultant, and those costs are borne by the project sponsors. A sponsor sometimes reads that and concludes EXIM will do the analysis for them. The sequence runs the other way: the sponsor's completed feasibility study, FEED, ESIA and finance plan are what get the application past the completeness gate and into evaluation, and it is that material EXIM's consultants then test — adversarially, and at the sponsor's expense. Arriving without it does not save money; it costs a cycle and returns the file.
Two policy layers sit alongside the credit analysis. For economic impact, the current framework is the February 2025 Economic Impact Procedures and Methodological Guidelines, effective for transactions considered by the Bank on or after February 1, 2025 (earlier versions were issued in August 2020 and April 2013). A feasibility study supports this review with market-displacement and capacity analysis rather than assertion.
For foreign-buyer transactions, content policy governs how much EXIM will support. Support is generally the lesser of 85 percent of the value of all eligible goods and services in the U.S. export contract, or 100 percent of the U.S. content in them. In Congressionally defined Transformational Export Areas, EXIM may provide full financing as allowed by the OECD Arrangement where the transaction is at least 51 percent U.S. content, and content of People's Republic of China origin is deemed ineligible in those transactions. The standard OECD requirement is a 15 percent cash payment; where deviations are allowed, EXIM may support more than 85 percent of net contract price if the transaction is at least 85 percent U.S. content. Content percentages come from an up-front Exporter's Certificate, and goods transshipped through the U.S. are treated as Excluded Goods. For a domestic Make More in America transaction, the jobs-based sizing test replaces the U.S. content requirement — the detail is on the MMIA page.
The table below maps the pre-application expectations above to what an independent Wert-Berater engagement produces and where responsibility sits. Items marked as not ours are identified, reconciled to, and flagged when missing — we do not produce engineering or environmental deliverables.
| EXIM expectation | Wert-Berater deliverable | Responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| Completed feasibility study before application | Independent feasibility report with an express determination, sourced and reconcilable | Wert-Berater — lead analyst, reviewed by the President |
| Market analysis capable of surviving adversarial review | Market study: addressable demand, competitive supply, pricing evidence, offtake for the plant's specific output | Wert-Berater — market analysis |
| Reliable future cash flow and sufficient debt-service coverage | Fully linked financial model with no hardcoded values, debt-service analysis, and sensitivity to the coverage floor | Wert-Berater — financial modeling |
| Front-end engineering and design (FEED) | Not ours — reconciled to, with gaps flagged; capital cost carried into the model | Independent engineer / EPC contractor |
| Approved Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) | Not ours — schedule and cost impact carried into the model | Environmental consultant |
| Preliminary finance plan and committed equity | Sources-and-uses reflecting the committed equity and debt structure | Sponsor and its financial adviser; carried in our model |
| Preliminary information memorandum (PIM) | Study content structured so the PIM can draw directly from it | Sponsor / financial adviser, supported by Wert-Berater |
| Long-term offtake and input contracts | Offtake and supply analysis, counterparty credit commentary, contract-coverage schedule | Wert-Berater, with sponsor's counsel on enforceability |
| Economic impact and additionality review | Economic-impact and market-displacement analysis referencing the February 2025 procedures | Wert-Berater — economic analysis |
| Reasonable assurance of repayment (non-project finance) | Historical financial analysis and global debt-service capacity | Wert-Berater — credit analysis |
Wert-Berater has not to date completed an engagement financed by EXIM, and we make no claim that EXIM has approved, accepted or reviewed our work. What we bring is directly adjacent and verifiable: more than 4,000 feasibility studies since 1998; $40.2 billion in evaluated project value; work in all 50 states; export-oriented manufacturing facility studies in Bulgaria, Finland, the Czech Republic, Germany and Saudi Arabia; oil and gas refinery studies in Qatar and Dubai, including a 50,000-barrel-per-day refinery and a used-lube-oil re-refinery; a 150,000-square-foot indoor food production facility in Qatar; and an extensive record of SBA 504/7(a) (SOP 50 10 8) and USDA Business & Industry (RD Instruction 5001) manufacturing and processing studies. Every engagement is delivered through a secure client portal, and standard delivery is 10–15 business days from complete project data. Our studies are prepared to address EXIM's published requirements using an EXIM-aligned methodology; whether an application succeeds is EXIM's determination, not ours. See also the manufacturing plant feasibility study and the vitamin and nutraceutical manufacturing feasibility study.
The Division's guidance states a project should have completed its feasibility studies, FEED, an approved ESIA and a preliminary finance plan before an application is submitted. Because there is no prescribed format, the burden is on the study to answer the questions EXIM's due diligence will ask — market demand, production economics, the export nexus, and a reasonable assurance of repayment — in a form a credit officer and EXIM's own consultants can trace and stress.
If the same domestic project is structured as limited-recourse project finance rather than corporate credit, Attachment F (EIB 95-10f, Foreign and Domestic Project Finance) governs the filing instead of Attachment G/I. Confirm the exact set for your transaction with EXIM or your lender, since the applicable attachments depend on the specifics of the deal.
Those are the published early milestones. Negotiation to final commitment, Board authorization and documentation follow the PPL and take additional time that depends on the transaction. The completeness review is a gate; the 45-day window runs from when evaluation begins, not from receipt.
Those consultants review the sponsor's feasibility study, FEED and other materials; they do not replace them. The sponsor separately retains its own legal and financial consultants before applying, so a project finance transaction carries two sets of professional costs — the sponsor's advisers and EXIM's independent reviewers.
In project finance this commonly means missing or unfinished feasibility studies, FEED, an approved ESIA or a preliminary finance plan; equity that is not yet committed; the absence of long-term offtake and input contracts from creditworthy counterparties; or a required attachment left out. The return costs a cycle, which is why the pre-application checklist matters. See the EXIM feasibility study hub for how we scope an engagement to close those gaps before you file.
Sources: EXIM published guidance, fetched for this review — Guidelines for Submitting a Successful Project Finance Application, Our Approach to Project Finance, Make More in America Initiative, Forms and Applications (Form EIB 95-10 and attachments), Content Policy — Medium and Long Term, and Economic Impact Procedures. EXIM requirements change; confirm current guidance with EXIM or your lender before relying on any summary, including this one.
Tell us the product, the plant, the destination markets and the financing structure you are contemplating. We will tell you which attachments apply, whether the project is ready to survive a completeness review, what evidence you are missing, and what the study will cost — before you commit to anything.
Qualify an EXIM project. Scope, timeline and fee confirmed in writing before work begins. Independent findings, never contingent on the outcome.
Schedule a Zoom Call →