	u k exports body gets new executive director export credits guarantee department has named malcolm stephens director of export finance at barclay s bank plc and a former career civil servant at ecgd for years to the post of executive director a department spokesman said stephens replaces jack gill who is retiring early aged a drop in the ecgd s business volume and a rise in its debt to the exchequer have led to criticism in parliament in recent years stephens said the fall in business volume was a top convern adding that the department may have to compete more aggressively with private insurance firms providing similar services the department s annual report for the year ended march showed exports insured by the department fell to billion stg from billion the year before while its debt to the exchequer almost doubled to mln stg stephens said he had no specific list of changes but among his chief concerns was the weakened condition of lesser developed countries and their ability to pay for their imports the agency will have to review its policies on insuring export credits to lesser credits on a country by country basis he said large lump political risk insurance is the sort of thing we want to take a look at you have to try to look forward to see if you are simply in a peak and trough situation or it is a more long term thing stephens said in response to a qustion about whether ecgd will strike more countries from its list of political risk insurance recipients he noted that certain countries have already been removed from the list reuter 
