Surety bonds and guarantees — fact sheet
The instruments we write, the published rate each starts from, the reference criteria, the documents an underwriter needs and how a line is requested.
For contractors, dealer networks, corporate treasurers and their brokers
Bonds and guarantees issued from Dublin, on our own paper.
Guarantees are the line of business FDI Insurance is licensed for. We issue surety bonds and financial guarantees as an insurer rather than as a bank, which means the facility sits outside your borrowing lines and leaves your committed facilities untouched. Every wording is read by an underwriter before it is issued, and every bond is issued by the same entity that carries the risk.
Boland’s Quay, Dublin · William Murphy, CC BY-SA 2.0
12 products
The guarantees & surety range
Each product page sets out who it is for, what it does, and the facts a broker needs before recommending it.
Contract surety
Performance Bond
Secures an employer against the cost of completing a contract if the contractor fails to perform. Issued on-demand or default-based, in the employer’s preferred wording where it is acceptable to us.
Read moreSurety insurance for Spain
Seguro de Caución
The Spanish surety instrument, written on our own paper under ramo 15 of the DGSFP register: guarantees admitted for the garantía provisional and definitiva in public procurement, for an aplazamiento of tax debt and for grid access and connection — outside the bank facility that funds the work.
Read moreGrid access, permits, auctions, EPC and dismantling
Renewable Energy Surety
The guarantees a wind, solar or storage project has to post before it earns anything — to secure its grid access and connection point, to the administration that authorises it, to take part in a capacity auction, on the EPC and supply contracts, to the offtaker and for dismantling the plant at the end — written as surety by an insurer, so the sequence is carried by one facility and the bank line that funds construction is left intact.
Read moreContract surety
Advance Payment Guarantee
Lets a supplier take payment up front while giving the buyer recourse if the goods or works are never delivered. Reduces amortises as the contract is performed.
Read moreContract surety
Bid & Tender Bond
Short-dated bond confirming that a tender is serious and that the bidder will enter the contract on the terms offered. Usually a small percentage of the tender sum.
Read moreContract surety
Retention Bond
Replaces cash retention held by the employer with an insurance bond, releasing working capital to the contractor while leaving the employer’s position intact.
Read moreStatutory guarantee
Customs & Excise Guarantee
Comprehensive guarantee securing deferred duty, VAT and excise to Revenue or HMRC, so that goods can move under duty suspension without lodging cash.
Read moreCredit
Trade Credit Insurance
Indemnifies a seller against non-payment by trade debtors through insolvency or protracted default, on a whole-turnover or key-accounts basis.
Read moreCredit
Financial Guarantee
Guarantees a defined payment obligation — a lease stream, a dealer floorplan facility, a deferred consideration — where the beneficiary needs an insurer’s covenant behind a counterparty it cannot fully assess.
Read moreCommercial surety
Rent Deposit Guarantee
Stands in place of a cash rent deposit on a commercial lease, so the tenant keeps the deposit in the business and the landlord keeps its security.
Read moreResidential caución, Spain
Rent Default Insurance (impago de alquiler)
Cover against unpaid rent on a residential lease in Spain, written as a caución de alquiler: the landlord is indemnified for the months of additional security the lease provides for, the tenant keeps the cash a bank aval or extra months would have tied up, and the legal fianza stays where the law puts it.
Read moreStatutory guarantee
Environmental Restoration Bond
Secures a site restoration or aftercare obligation imposed by a planning authority or the Environmental Protection Agency, for the full statutory aftercare period.
Read moreIndicative pricing
Price a bond before you ring the desk
Work out what it costs to have a bond issued on our paper: the premium rate, the fees and the total payable on issue. Every figure updates as you change the form, and the rate build-up underneath shows how each answer moved the price.
Indicative cost
€22,500.00
over 24 months (2 years) · 1.13% of bond value per annum, all in
1.10%p.a. premium rate (110 bps)
- Premium for the termSingle premium for the whole term, payable in full on issue
- €22,000.00
- Issuance and arrangement fee
- €500.00
- Wording reviewOur standard form
- Included
- Bond deed, issue and execution
- Included
- Cash collateral required
- None
- Total indicative cost2.25% of €1,000,000 over the term
- €22,500.00
This carries the figures above into the enquiry form below, where you can add the contract detail.
How the rate is built
Surety is rated on the applicant, not on the beneficiary’s covenant. Each line below multiplies the one above it.
- Base ratePerformance Bond
- 1.05% p.a.
- Financial strengthBand 2 — strong and consistently profitable
- −5%
- SecurityUnsecured, against an approved surety facility
- No adjustment
- WordingConditional — default must be established
- No adjustment
- BeneficiaryCorporate employer in Ireland, the UK or the EEA
- +5%
- Term13 – 36 months
- +5%
- Indicative premium rate
- 1.10% p.a.
Payment terms
Single premium for the whole term, payable in full on issue, together with the fees. Nothing falls due after issue.
- Premium for the term
- €22,000.00
- Fees on issue
- €500.00
- Payable before issue
- €22,500.00
The premium is not paid annually or monthly: whatever the term of the bond, it is paid in full before the bond is issued. For larger bonds only, the desk may agree payment by instalments, on conditions the applicant signs up to — payment undertakings, cheques, deposits or other security — and that is decided case by case, never by this calculator.
Post-issue servicing is charged separately: amendments €150 per endorsement, extensions 0.05% of bond value (minimum €300). Claims are handled without a fee.
Indicative only. This calculator applies our published rates to the answers given. It is not a quotation, does not constitute an offer of insurance, and does not commit FDI Insurance d.a.c. to issuing a bond. Firm terms follow underwriting: audited accounts, the contract or licence documents, the proposed wording and, where required, a counter-indemnity. Bonds are arranged through regulated intermediaries only. FDI Insurance d.a.c. is authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland.
What drives the number
Three things move a surety rate
Nothing in the calculator is arbitrary. These are the levers an underwriter actually pulls.
Rated on your balance sheet
A surety bond is underwritten on the applicant and its counter-indemnity, not on the beneficiary’s covenant. Financial strength moves the rate further than anything else on the form.
The wording changes the price
An on-demand bond is an unconditional obligation and is priced as one. A conditional bond, where default has to be established first, is our standard form and our cheapest.
Term is exposure we cannot re-rate
The rate is quoted per annum, but the premium for the whole term is paid in full on issue, and a long-dated bond carries a loading because the rate is fixed for the whole of it.
The base rates the calculator starts from
Before any loading or discount, and the same rates quoted on the product pages.
| Bond or guarantee | Standard term | Usually written for | From |
|---|---|---|---|
| Performance Bond | 12–60 months | Typically 10% of contract value | 1.05% p.a. |
| Seguro de Caución | 6–60 months | Garantía definitiva 5% of the award price; deferral and access guarantees in full | 1.05% p.a. |
| Renewable Energy Surety | 12–120 months | The sum per kilowatt the access regulation sets; 10% – 30% on EPC and supply contracts | 1.20% p.a. |
| Advance Payment Guarantee | 6–24 months | 10% – 30% of contract value | 1.20% p.a. |
| Bid & Tender Bond | 3–12 months | 1% – 5% of the tender sum | 1.35% p.a. |
| Retention Bond | 12–36 months | 3% – 5% of contract value | 0.95% p.a. |
| Customs & Excise Guarantee | 12–60 months | Limit assessed by Revenue or HMRC | 0.85% p.a. |
| Financial Guarantee | 6–60 months | Named obligation, up to 100% | 1.50% p.a. |
| Rent Deposit Guarantee | 12–60 months | 3 – 12 months’ rent | 1.30% p.a. |
| Environmental Restoration Bond | 60–360 months | The restoration cost estimate in full | 1.15% p.a. |
Request a firm quotation
Ask for firm terms
Price a bond above and the figures come through to this form. You can also write to us directly.
Common questions
What brokers ask us about bonds and guarantees
The questions the underwriting desk answers most often, and the answers it gives. Nothing here is an offer of cover — a bond is priced and issued on the submission in front of us.
- What is a surety bond, and how is it different from a bank guarantee?
- Both give a beneficiary a third party to claim against if the client does not perform. The difference is whose balance sheet stands behind it and what it costs the client to have. A bank guarantee is credit: it is written against the client’s facility, and the amount is no longer available to fund the work. A surety bond is insurance, written on the insurer’s own capital, so the committed banking lines stay where they are. For a contractor holding several bonds across live contracts, that is usually the whole argument.The guarantee range
- How much does a performance bond cost?
- A premium is a percentage of the guaranteed amount, per year, and it is decided by the financial strength of the principal, the term, the wording and any security taken. Our published rates start at 1.05% a year for a performance bond, and no bond prices below 0.70% however strong the covenant and however much collateral is offered — a rate beneath that is not one the desk would write. There is a minimum premium of £350 and an issuance fee that steps with the bond size. The premium for the whole term is paid in full when the bond is issued, not year by year; for larger bonds the desk may agree instalments on conditions the applicant signs. The calculator on this page runs the same pricing the underwriter does, so an indicative figure takes about a minute.Price a bond
- How quickly can a bond be issued?
- Where a facility is already in place and the wording has been pre-agreed, a bid or tender bond is issued within 24 hours. A first bond takes as long as the financial review takes, which is ordinarily a matter of days from a complete submission — accounts, the contract or tender documents, and the wording the beneficiary requires. The way to make every subsequent bond a phone call is to set the facility against the year rather than against the contract in front of you.How we work with brokers
- Will you issue a bond on the beneficiary’s own wording?
- Usually, and always with the wording read first. An underwriter reads the form the employer, contracting authority or landlord requires before anything is issued, and where a clause cannot be accepted the amendment comes back with the reason for it rather than as a refusal. What we will not do is issue a wording nobody has read: an on-demand guarantee and a conditional bond are different instruments, and which one has been signed matters most on the day it is called.
- What security or counter-indemnity do you take?
- A counter-indemnity from the principal in every case, and from the parent where the contracting entity is thinly capitalised relative to the exposure. Beyond that it is a pricing question rather than a condition: cash, a charge or a parent guarantee reduces the rate, and the calculator on this page shows by how much. Bonds above £5m go to referral regardless of the security offered, because an exposure that size is underwritten by a person and not by a table.
- Who carries the risk on a bond you issue?
- We do. The bond is issued by the same authorised undertaking that holds the capital behind it, and there is no fronting arrangement to unwind if it is called. That is the point of publishing the figures: eligible own funds covered the solvency capital requirement 1.63 times at the last filed reporting date, and every filed report since 2019 is on this site in full. A beneficiary accepting our guarantee is accepting that balance sheet, so it is one we would rather be chosen on.The filed figures
- Do I need terms of business before I can place a bond with you?
- Yes, and getting them is the short part. An intermediary applies once — as a firm, as an individual broker at a firm we already act for, or as a network — and terms of business ordinarily follow within ten working days of a complete application. Credentials for the broker portal are issued by the desk at the end of that, which is why there is no self-registration for a broker account. A live enquiry does not have to wait for it: send the risk to the broker desk and the accreditation runs alongside.Apply for terms of business
Documents and forms
The guarantee range on paper
Four documents a broker can forward: what we write and at what rate, why an insurer’s bond rather than a bank guarantee, the guarantees a renewable energy project posts, and the questionnaire a company completes to request a line. Each is in English and in Spanish; the questionnaire is a fillable PDF that emails itself to the desk, and can also be completed online.
Ten reasons to secure an obligation with an insurer’s bond
Why a surety bond or a seguro de caución rather than a bank guarantee: the facility it leaves intact, the cost basis, the acceptance by the administration, the supervised capital behind it.
Renewable energy — the guarantees a project posts
The sequence from the grid access and connection guarantee to dismantling, who holds each one, when it is released, what the desk needs and the facility that carries the sequence.
Surety application questionnaire
The form a company completes to request a bond, a guarantee or a facility — fillable, with a button that emails it to the desk. Also available as an online form.
The documents describe how the desk works and the rates it publishes; none of them is an offer of cover, and the policy wording and schedule, once issued, are the only documents that determine what is covered.
Spain
Seguro de caución in Spain, on the DGSFP register
The same guarantee desk writes ramo 15, caución, and ramo 14, crédito, in Spain under the freedom to provide services: guarantees admitted for the garantía provisional and definitiva, for a tax aplazamiento and for a grid connection, without spending the bank line that funds the work.
Who to talk to
Arranged through your broker
For contractors, dealer networks, corporate treasurers and their brokers. We do not sell direct: the intermediary keeps the client relationship and we underwrite behind it. Everything on this page is issued by an undertaking authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland.
Elsewhere
Other ranges
Investments
Onshore and international accounts, insured funds and open architecture.
Retirement
Annuities, scheme pensions, fixed-term income and drawdown.
Estate planning
Trusts, whole of life cover and professional trustee services.
Workplace protection
Group life, income protection, critical illness and employee support.
Home finance
Lifetime mortgages and later-life buy-to-let lending.