About OFII
The Office of Finance and Insurance Industries (OFII) seeks to enhance the domestic and international competitiveness of key US financial services industries. OFII's focus includes deploying 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, banking, trade finance, impact investing, securities, venture capital, private equity, access to capital, pensions, asset management, exchanges, and non-banking 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.
- 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).
- 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 Florida International University to help Industry and Analysis (I & A) address mission critical 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 (a) the US delegation to official export credit financing negotiations hosted 3-4 times annually by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the forum in which the overall international framework governing the provision of official export credits provided by Ex-Im Bank and its foreign counterparts across critical industry sectors is negotiated, and (b) the US delegation to the International Working Group on Export Credits, a group of 18 developed and developing country providers of export credits, including Brazil, China, and India, with an aim of seeking agreement on general rules for providing official financing for exports.
- 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.