Export-Import Bank's charter expires for the first time since its founding

Export Import Bank President
(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

For the first time since its founding in 1934, the Export-Import Bank's charter expired at midnight on Tuesday. The federal agency, known colloquially as Ex-Im, helps U.S. businesses export products and provides loans and credit insurance to companies when private lenders view their ventures as too risky.

Though Ex-Im generated a surplus of $675 million to the Treasury last year, conservative advocates of small government saw the agency as an example of the government's over-involvement in business and thus advocated for letting the bank's charter expire.

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