A federal agency that provides insurance for U.S. exporters. The Foreign Credit Insurance Association is a voluntary association formed in 1961 by some 50 U.S. insurance companies and sponsored by the Export-Import bank. |||The insurance provided protects the purchaser from both commercial risk (when the debtor is unable to pay due to their business situation) and political risk (when the debtor is unable to pay due to changes in the politics of a particular country). The Export-Import bank deals primarily with political risk, while the FCIA covers commercial risk.