We were delighted to welcome clients, financiers and maritime industry stakeholders to our ‘Navigating Ship Finance: Expert Insights and Networking’ seminar in Hamburg. Bringing together leading market participants, the event offered a timely forum to discuss the latest developments in ship finance and the wider maritime sector.
The morning featured expert perspectives from Sabine Martens of Junge & Co. Versicherungsmakler on war risk from a financier’s perspective and WFW Partner John Ahern on the implications of CRD VI/CRR3, alongside a panel discussion exploring current financial developments and market trends.
Below are some of the key insights from the event.
War risk from a financier’s perspective
Sabine Martens (Consultant at Junge & Co. Versicherungsmakler)
Marine insurance policies are adapting to the global political landscape through their products, clauses and exclusions. It is important to include appropriate clauses in the loan documentation, but these should not be too detailed, as changes may occur during the term of the loan. Trust in the customer is important, but there is always a residual risk.
Capital Requirements Directive Vl and Capital Requirements Regulation lll
John Ahern (WFW Partner)
CRD VI and CRR3 will have a significant impact on the ability of non-EU banks to conduct banking business on a cross-border basis into Europe and, for EU banks, a significant increase in the capital requirements applying to specialised lending exposures. In relation to licensing issues, many foreign banks will be concerned as to whether an activity with an EU borrower or depositor will require a banking licence in the relevant EU jurisdiction of the client. This in turn will impact EU clients’ appetite for dealing with foreign service providers. Regarding the capital requirements changes for EU banks, there is a considerable concern as to the impact of those measures on the competitiveness of the EU banking industry relative to other markets and regions.
Key takeaways:
- CRD VI will restrict the access to banking services for EU borrowers, to the extent that relevant service providers are non-EU banks;
- CRR 3 will transform the capital cost of lending in certain areas and may well create an incentive for banks to deploy capital to projects which are less capital intensive, thereby reducing the availability of financing in specialised lending; and
- the package of measures is likely to negatively impact the competitiveness of the EU banking sector.
If you want to discuss the insights above, or our work in the maritime sector more generally, please reach out to one of our partners via our website.
