Atradius Surety FAQs

• Apply for a surety bond through our online application
  process or an email (depending on the bond needed).
• Fill in the application form including the required
  bond type and wording, amount, duration and further
  specifications about the obligations to cover.
• Your application is assessed by your local surety team.
• You receive a draft of the surety bond to be issued and if
  approved by you.
• The surety bond is issued in favour of the beneficiary.

The information required to assess a surety bond facility is,
among others:

• Financial statements (at least the last three financial years).
• Stakeholders’ and management team information.
• Business strategy (plan) for the next few years.
• Overall surety bond need (e.g. type of bonds, beneficiary countries, durations).

Depending on the complexity, this process can take up to a
couple of weeks.

• Your underlying obligation that originates the surety need (e.g. contract, regulations).
• Surety bond amount, duration and beneficiary.
• Your capability of fulfilling your obligations towards the beneficiary.
• Specific requirements for the surety bond wording if any. After the evaluation has been done, we will send you an offer, which sets out all terms and conditions required in connection with the underlying risk.

A collateral is an asset or more general commitment that has
been offered as a counter guarantee for a policy or a surety
bond.

Collateral might be needed in some countries and
cases. Collateral is usually requested in order to strengthen
the credit worthiness of a prospect/customer and enable a
positive final evaluation of a surety bond request.

No, we are not allowed to issue financial guarantees. In fact,
as financial guarantees are issued to cover purely financial
obligations granted by banks or financial institutions, these
products fall outside the scope of insurance.

Our surety bonds are widely accepted by governments as well
as large publicly traded companies and private enterprises.

Atradius Surety is active and can issue surety bonds locally in 12 European countries: Belgium, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. Surety requests related to other countries are evaluated on a case by case basis.

Our Surety teams assess these requests according to relevant
local legislation on insurance licensing as well as other
factors, such as the nature of the underlying obligations,
terms and conditions, etc.

In case of a new relationship, Atradius Surety needs to perform
a full underwriting assessment, which depending on
the complexity, may take up to a few weeks to be completed
and a surety bonds facility to be established. Once the facility
is established, in most cases we can issue a surety bond
within 24 hours, depending on the amount, complexity and
nature of the case.

Duration varies depending on the type of a surety bond.

A surety bond is terminated when it reaches its specific
expiration date or when the beneficiary provides a “release
letter”. This is a declaration that the underlying obligations
have been fulfilled and no longer need to be guaranteed.

No, we cannot cancel a surety bond. However, specific conditions may apply.

We evaluate each case individually as the premium
varies according to the type and duration of the bond, the
customer’s financial information and the market practice.

First, the customer is informed that a claim has been filed to
give him the opportunity to reach out to the beneficiary to
resolve the case. If this is unsuccessful, we assess the claim
for its validity and, if approved, we pay the amount due to the
beneficiary in accordance with the value determined within
the bond. If we consider the request baseless or partially
grounded (such as the unfair calling of a bond), we can take
legal action to protect both your business and ourselves.