The term 'participation' refers to the concept of assuming a share of the risk. The participants in an export finance contract assume a certain percentage of the risk of the financing contract, in effect lessening the risk borne by the bank.

In an export finance transaction as well as in an export finance dossier, up to 99 participants can be stored per contract. These can participate in the export finance risk up to a maximum of 100%.

The participations are managed in the panel with the same heading within the contract. If participations do not exist in an export finance contract initially and only need to be added in the further course of business, this can be done using the transaction Participation Changing.

There can be different types of participation:

• If the participation is backed by cash, i.e., if the participants make a payment, it is referred to as a 'funded participation'). The business transaction Participant Payment is provided for the purpose of registering the incoming payment.
• A participation involving no cash being deposited is referred to as an 'unfunded participation').

On the “Participations” panel, a distinction is made between silent and open participations.

• A participation that is not disclosed to the debtor is referred to as a 'silent participation').
• In the case of an 'open participation', the parties to the contract (debtor, exporter) are made aware of the participation.

A silent participation may occur if the agent bank and the bank using the application are not identical. That means if the bank participates in the export financing of another bank, its own participations will be recorded as “silent participation”, while the participations of the agent bank are recorded as open participation.

The calculation of the 'Own Take Amount', i.e., the bank’s own risk, is based on the maximum limit amount minus the sum of the shares of all the participants. This amount is at the same time considered a risk amount for the collateral deposit, and thus also a the base amount for calculating the credit exposure to be recorded. For detailed information, see Collateral.

There are 2 options for recording a participation:

• The amount of the participation is entered. The percentage share the amount represents is automatically calculated and displayed. In the case of subsequent changes, the amount will not be changed automatically but must be manually adjusted to the new amount where necessary.
• The percentage of the participation is entered. The amount of the participation this percentage represents is automatically calculated and displayed. In the case of subsequent changes, the amount will always be adjusted automatically in accordance with the percentage.

From the maximum limit amount, any 'IDC Interest During Construction' is deducted, followed by the sum of all “open” participations, and finally the sum of all “silent” participations. The result of this calculation is the 'Own Take', both as an amount and as the percentage share of the maximum credit limit.

Any sub-participations that may exist are displayed in all the transactions. Adjustments can be made when the contract or dossier is opened (New Request/ Contract Editor, Opening Dossier) and in the amendment transactions (Dossier Amendment and Participation Changing.

In the information about the export finance transaction or the export finance dossier, the contract amounts are displayed as a percentage of the equity share on the panel Amount/Balance Overview, in effect providing information about all the export financing balances/risk amounts relevant to the export financing transaction at the current time.

For each of the participants, a separate repayment plan is calculated at the time of disbursement and managed in separate, individual accounts. Interest rate differentials between the agent bank and sub-participants (referred to as “skim”) can be calculated.