Authors: Etleva Zenelai, Alina Hyz

Title: Bank Lending to shipping in the time of crisis

Abstract

The bank financing is the main source of raising funds in shipping and despite the recent shift towards alternative financing instruments, bank lending continues to dominate ship finance. The aim of the research is the study of the banks’ lending to the Greek shipping industry during the last years with particular emphasis on the effect of the crisis. The study includes two key aspects, on the one hand, the evolution of the Greek shipping industry and on the other its access to bank lending.  In a highly dynamic and volatile business environment, the fleet composition is changing and new sources of funding are offered. During the under-analysis period, the Greek banking sector was restructured and non-performing loans are being identified as their biggest problem. The research data for this study were extracted from the Bank of Greece’s Interim Monetary Policy Reports, by Petrofin Bank Research and UNCTED. From the analysis stems that although the banking was highly reduced and the capacity of the Greek fleet increases, which indicates that the crisis has favoured the growth of the fleet and limited maritime portfolios. The analysis concludes with an attempt to predict future developments.