mumbai if they didnt think about it before the current volatility in the rupee and the global economic crisis definitely have exporters scrambling for cover unfortunately it is the current state of the global market that is making domestic insurers shy away from providing the cover the cover in question is credit risk insurancecredit insurance protects receivables from debtors over protracted default or if the buyer becomes insolvent exporters structure their account receivables through the letter of credit andor trade credit lc is a letter from a bank guaranteeing a payment to a seller on time if the buyer is unable to make payment on purchase the bank will have to make the payment in trade credit payment is made within 30 days from the date of receipt of the goodshowever with several foreign banks going through difficult times and firms including apparel marketers and retail chains either reporting shrinking profits or filing for bankruptcy have resulted in indian companies rushing for insurance cover there is a demand for covers from number of exporters to obtain covers from ecgc export credit guarantee corporation of india the recent happenings due to global financial crisis have brought out the need to have appropriate credit insurance said ecgcs executive director s prabhakarangovernmentowned ecgc is the countrys largest and the worlds fifth largest credit insurer the other players offering similar products are new india assurance icici lombard bajaj allianz and iffco tokiomohit agrawal vice president at leading international insurance broking firm marsh too is seeing increased demand for credit risk insurance we are getting a lot of enquiries however in some cases the cover is rejected if the client is us based in these stressed financial times the geographical location plays an important role for acquiring a cover among others however some exporters say that insurance companies are placing restrictions in terms of policy selectionthey would prefer companies to insure their entire turnover and not opt for a client specific or order specific cover this preferred option given by the insurer restrains companies from selecting the risk said an executive of a leading exporter of home textiles some say that insurers are hesitant to insure beyond a certain limit of the order size from a particular clientin the changed environment computing of premium has also become stringent factoring in the buyers rating level good credit management practices and the geographic location the premium for a selective insurance cover works out to be higher as compared to a whole turnover policy industry observers say that insurers may increase premium rates in the next couple of monthseurope a large 80 credit insurance market is seeing lot of claims thus hitting insurers hard this is because several banks are downloading their exposure to insurance companies we are seeing premium rates being hardened globally it should happen in india too it should increase by 1520 for new policy buyers said agrawal