. The world is changing and so are international trades in goods and services, their financing as well as their traditional forms of ensuring and guaranteeing. The second edition of this dictionary takes account of this ongoing development. Twenty years ago, export credit insurance was, nearly exclusively, a matter of state support to the exporting industry: preferential financing facilities offered through state banks and public export credit insurance through governmental or state-near export credit agencies (ECAs). The terminology was dependent on the national legal and commercial systems of these institutions. Ten years ago, it became obvious that export credit insurance was no longer an exclusive matter of ECAs when all major private credit insurers began to offer cover for commercial risks. Today, we are at the edge of covering even political risks on the account of private credit insurance companies and their reinsurers. These econ