OFII
Office of Finance and Insurance Industries
The Office of Finance and Insurance Industries (OFII) deploys a variety of policy, promotion, and analysis work to achieve the goals of expanding US financial services exports, attracting investment to the United States, and facilitating the growth and development of new and inclusive segments of finance. Primary areas of focus for OFII include insurance, financial technology, banking, impact investment, trade finance, securities, venture capital, private equity, access to capital, pensions, asset management, and non-bank financing. OFII also produces the Trade Finance Guide and serves as ITA's policy shop on Ex-Im Bank, Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) multilateral development banks, and other official finance issues. OFII is divided into two teams:
Financial Services Team
- Conducts policy, promotion and analysis to strengthen the domestic and international competitiveness of the US financial services industry.
- Leads several interagency efforts to address market access challenges facing the financial services industry in key emerging markets such as China, Brazil and India.
- Launched new financial technology initiative to support US fintech companies in foreign markets.
- Leads highly acclaimed global promotion initiative to introduce US-based venture capital and private equity firms to foreign institutional investors.
- Creates and protects market access for financial services firms through policy development and participation in bilateral and multilateral negotiations such as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement.
- Leads US delegation to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Insurance and Private Pensions Committee.
- Leads ITA's efforts to promote and facilitate growth and development of US-based impact investing.
- Conceived and executes unique virtual research partnership agreement with the University of Colorado Boulder School of Law to address mission critical impact finance issues while introducing graduate students to the importance of public service.
Trade and Project Finance Team
- Ex-Im Bank: Coordinates Commerce views, recommends positions, and prepares senior officials to convey Departmental views on financing proposals being considered at weekly meetings of the Board of Directors of the US Export-Import Bank.
- OPIC: Coordinates Commerce views, recommends positions, and prepares the Commerce Board member to vote on financing proposals being considered at quarterly meetings of the Board of Directors of the OPIC.
- MDBs: Represents the Department at weekly meetings of the Working Group on Multilateral Aid, the Treasury-led interagency group that reviews multilateral development bank financing proposals.
- Official Export Credits: Represents Commerce on U.S. delegations to multilateral export credit negotiations to (a) strengthen existing Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) disciplines and (b) bring all major providers of official export credits, including China and other emerging markets, into a rules-based system through the International Working Group on Export Credits.
- Trade Finance: Responsible for publishing the Trade Finance Guide: A Quick Reference for US Exporters which serves as a useful finance resource for small- and medium-sized enterprises.
- Global Finance Team: Manages ITA-wide Global Finance Team that focuses on educating ITA employees on key issues related to finance and access to finance, conducting trade finance promotion and education, and creating a "one-ITA" approach to financial services and access to finance to better serve customers and clients.
The International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, manages this global trade site to provide access to ITA information on promoting trade and investment, strengthening the competitiveness of U.S. industry, and ensuring fair trade and compliance with trade laws and agreements. External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views or privacy policies contained therein. This site contains PDF documents. A PDF reader is available from Adobe Systems Incorporated.