Our forums are a crucial aspect of our service to clients. Infospectrum’s annual Counterparty Credit Risk Forum in Singapore was a great success, and we look forward to welcoming attendees to our next event in London in September.
On 12th July 2018, Infospectrum held its annual Singapore Counterparty Credit Risk Forum in the Jasmine Room at Hotel Fort Canning. This venue is an award-winning boutique hotel that is superbly located within 18 hectares of lush greenery in the heart of the city.
The forum provided an ideal opportunity to discuss topical risk management issues, enhance the credit expertise of our clients, and enable over 100 clients to connect with industry peers. Ultimately our aim was to deliver an informative and enjoyable afternoon and evening, providing a ‘thank you’ to our clients in the region.
This year’s forum was more compact than in previous years. By holding it over the course of an afternoon, we were able to run four focused sessions allowing for extended networking, which proved to be extremely valuable for our clients. Colin Jarraw, a speaker at the forum agreed that ‘the organisers managed to get a good balance on the time’.
Infospectrum Credit Risk Forum 2018
The first session was the market update, led by Burak Cetinok, Head of Research at Arrow Shipbroking. Burak provided a broad overview of the current shipping market, outlining the forward-looking challenges of key markets including dry bulk, tanker and container shipping. Following the forum, Anna Karolina Orleanski, Head of Counterpart Risk at Western Bulk explained that ‘it was good to understand how the shipping cycle is broken down, how it typically evolves, and what happens in what stage’.
Burak also touched upon increasing tensions between China and the US, and the likely impact this will have on the shipping markets, particularly container shipping. Anna Karolina emphasised that these ‘real and relevant examples’ helped to enhance attendees’ understanding of ‘what sectors to look out for, how things are linked to each other and what the effects are’.
Colin Jarraw, an experienced shipping lawyer and partner at Stephenson Harwood (Singapore) Alliance, delivered a session covering liens on sub-freight, touching on and highlighting the rights of lien, whether the lien is registrable and exercisable, and the steps an owner needs to take in order to exercise its right to a lien over freight.
Benita Ong, a Risk Analyst and course attendee representing JERA Trading, revealed that ‘these concepts were very beneficial, given that I had no context of the freight markets’. Speaking with Colin after the event, he acknowledged that members of the audience felt this was very relevant to their business.
After a 30-minute networking break, Justin Tan, Procurement Manager at the China Navigation Company, held the third session, covering the risks in bunker procurement in the current climate and as we approach 2020, including the use of ‘2020’, and ‘no lien’ clauses available to ship owners.
Jeffrey Tanner, Associate at Stephenson Harwood (Singapore) Alliance, delivered the fourth and final session on letters of quiet enjoyment in relation to the commercial chartering business. In his talk, Jeffrey reminded attendees of their rights and freedom to negotiate, the potential complications of each involvement, and the pros and cons of different types of agreements when it comes to letters of quiet enjoyment.
The feedback following this event has been extremely positive — the atmosphere likened to that of a warm annual business reunion. Colin emphasised that ‘it was a great success’ and ‘a very good turnout’. As to why the forum attracted such a promising turnout, Colin suspected that ‘the people who attended saw value in what they received last year’.
Crucially, our clients were grateful for the opportunity to engage in meaningful discussions with their peers in light of the ample networking sessions. Colin stressed that ‘they [Infospectrum’s clients] see value in it. The networking held at the end of the day also had a good turnout’.
He concluded that ‘it was a great venue’ and predicts that next year’s forum will be ‘similarly well attended’.
