The predecessor of FEC was Finnish Export Credit Ltd, which was founded by Finnish commercial banks and some industrial companies in 1956. The Government acquired the majority of the shares of the company in 1963 and full ownership in 1992. The purpose of the company was to support Finnish exporting companies by providing medium and long-term export credits.
The export credit business was opened for commercial banks in 1997 and FIDE Ltd was founded to provide interest equalization for export credits. FIDE was set up by virtue of the Act on an Interest equalization Company for Officially Supported Export Credits and its activities were governed by the Act on the Interest Equalization of Officially Supported Export Credits. FIDE has been accorded the Export Credit Agency (ECA) status based on international agreements. Finnish Export Credit remained the major Finnish provider of export credits.
In 1998 Finnish Export Credit and Postipankki Plc merged to form Leonia Group, which included Leonia plc, the holding company, and it's two daughter companies, Leonia Bank plc and Leonia Corporate Bank plc. Leonia Corporate Bank was based on Finnish Export Credit's operations added with Postipankki's large client units. The focus of Leonia Corporate Bank was to serve large corporate customers export credits included.
On 1st of January, 1999 FIDE became a fully owned subsidiary on Finnvera plc a 100% state hold special financing company.
In December 2000 the Ministry of Finance founded the current Finnish Export Credit plc (FEC). The reason for establishing the new company was the need to provide Finnish exporting companies with similar financial infrastructure as the competing countries.
In May 2004 FEC became a fully owned subsidiary of Finnvera plc.
In June 2004 Finnvera plc decided to merge its subsidiaries FIDE and FEC. The objective of the merger was to increase organisational efficiency and ensure a competitive export finance system, which also includes the guarantee service of Finnvera plc. The merger came into effect on 31 December 2004.