Brussels, 14/06/2012 (Agence Europe) - The Commission has given its approval until 31 December 2012 to a Finnish short-term export credit insurance scheme by means of which Finland can support firms, including SMEs, for which cover is temporarily unavailable on the private market. Under the scheme, the Finnish state agency Finnvera plc will provide short-term export-credit insurance coverage for financially sound transactions only, and for two categories of risk which are currently inadequately covered by private insurers: - risk cover for exporting SMEs with a total annual export turnover of no more than €2 million; - single risk cover in cases where the risk is associated to a single export transaction which is not covered under a portfolio insurance from private insurers or in cases where the cover is or includes pre-credit risk. To ensure that the State will only cover transactions for which private cover is not available in the market and that the private insurers are not crowded out, should they be willing to provide cover for such risks, Finnvera will only intervene if a private insurer has denied cover. Furthermore, the premium rates charged under the scheme will, as far as possible, be aligned with the rates charged by private export-credit insurers for the same type of risk. The Commission concluded therefore that the scheme notified is compatible with EU state aid rules. (FG/transl.rt)