Summary
Shipping’s corporate veil is being pierced by ever more stringent financial and regulatory compliance requirements. Avoiding sanctions requires increasingly forensic due diligence across the supply chain to ensure security ‘red flags’ are not raised by international governments and agencies that now monitor every aspect of shipping’s trade links. On the upside, a fully digitalised supply chain offers a variety of new opportunities but, on the downside, data standardisation and sharing brings with it potential problems surrounding data storage, ownership and transparency. Transparency is potentially a double-edged sword for shipping stakeholders. For every digital advance that enhances efficiency and secures compliance, there are risks of liability and insurance risk.
Key Topics for Discussion
Panel 1 – Sanctions focus
This panel looks at the operational aspect of sanctions, for example, the risks around credit and counter-party charter. The industry is dealing with a myriad of regulations, from the IMO and country trade wars and sanctions, so the repercussions can go well beyond fines and reputational damage. Many businesses will say, “We won’t do business with Iran”, but with complex and opaque connections to 3rd-parties, can they guarantee this? With the Iranians becoming increasingly inventive in the way they evade sanctions, breaches are more likely, how do they cover third/fourth/fifth party as the ‘we didn’t know excuse’ doesn’t wash with countries like the US.
This forum will look at:
- How you protect against 3rd-party risk – can you only limit your exposure?
- Where are the real problem points?
- What are the Iranians doing?
- Why and how this applies to you?
- What are the grey areas of risk?
Panel 2 – Security & transparency
This panel discusses the industries move to become more transparent and clean up its act. The pressure to do so is coming from multiple sectors, including: environmentalists, regulators, financiers and technology.
The forum will look at:
- Financial restrictions, Poseidon – Requirement to be transparent to acquire finance
- Intro of supply chain systems like blockchain which are transparent require shippers to change behaviours and to be more clean and transparent
- Cyber security – implications for entire industry
- Does everyone in the supply chain understand each other’s pressures, requirements and strategies?
Speakers
| Daniel Martin, partner, HFW Daniel is HFW’s sanction’s expert, advising traders, shipowners, freight forwarders, insurers and brokers on a host of regulatory and compliance issues, including international trade sanctions, export controls, customs and anti-corruption legislation |
Cate Gwilliam, chief executive, Geollect
Cate is a former US intelligence security specialist who co-founded the geospatial intelligence and analysis firm Geollect. She is a Geospatial Intelligence specialist with vast experience across multiple US government and commercial sectors, having served as a specialist embedded within the US Secret Service, US Navy Central Command and US Department of Homeland Security.
| Mark Church, director (FD&D), North P&I Mark is a director at the P&I club North where, amongst many other things, he acts as their resident sanctions expert advising on shipping specific risk. Mark Joined the Club in 2012 from Reed Smith where he was a Senior Associate in the shipping department. |
Neil Roberts, Head of Marine Underwriting, Lloyd’s Market Association
Neil is responsible for the marine and aviation activity at the LMA represents the interests of the Lloyd’s community, providing professional and technical support to its members, who collectively manage a gross premium income of around £31bn a year. Neil is also a member of the International Union of Marine Insurance political forum.
| Deanna MacDonald, chief executive, BLOC Deanna is the chief executive and founder of Blockchain Labs for Open Collaboration (BLOC) which has pioneered the use and application of blockchain technology in the shipping space over the past three years together with industry partners. She is an expert on blockchain and the new forms of governance and business models needed to support the shipping industry transition into a new paradigm. |
| Professor Peter McBurney, technology consultant Peter is a Professor of Computer Science and a former Head of the Department of Informatics at King’s College London, where he undertakes research on blockchains and distributed ledger technologies (DLT), cryptocurrencies and token economics, and AI. He is also now the Head of Technology Consulting at Norton Rose Fulbright as well as a member of the Academic Advisory Council of the UK Financial Conduct Authority, advising on the use of AI and distributed ledger technologies in financial regulation. |
| Sally-Ann Underhill, partner, Reed Smith Sally Ann is a partner in Reed Smith’s global Transportation Industry Group and has been in the shipping industry for over 25 years. She has a particular interest in future-proofing the shipping industry and has recently been advising on the impending sulphur limits, cyber issues, GDPR and blockchain. Based in the London office, Sally-Ann works largely with clients in Europe, the U.S., India, China and Saudi Arabia, acting for the full range of shipping players including owners, charterers, traders, ship managers and insurers. |
