Commercial vetting and risk analysis company Infospectrum has been appointed the exclusive counterparty intelligence provider to the Baltic Exchange.
The partnership will allow the Baltic Exchange to carry out more detailed background checks of entities seeking to join the Exchange. It will also provide Baltic Exchange members with a means of sourcing business/company information, counterparty intelligence and credit reporting/credit ratings on their business partners.
Members will be encouraged to draw upon Infospectrum's market intelligence, developed by its global team of risk analysts and consultants in the UK, the US, Singapore, Australia and Colombia. Information will also be used to support the Baltic Exchange's dispute resolution service, reducing time and costs allocated to this complex area.
Infospectrum managing director Panos Panousis said: "We're delighted to be collaborating so closely with the Baltic Exchange. Greater transparency and an improved understanding of the risks of our complex sector, benefits individual companies and the shipping industry as a whole. Our team of experts will help to speed up and enhance the Baltic's new member onboarding process, identify whether or not a company is a Baltic Exchange member in our reports and provide business intelligence to the Baltic Exchange."
Baltic Exchange chief executive Mark Jackson commented: "This is part of the Baltic Exchange's drive to add value to Baltic membership. We want the wider commodity and financial communities to understand that Baltic Exchange member firms adhere to a strict code of conduct based on the principles of honesty and ethical trading, with access to impartial information from Infospectrum, a recognised and respected intelligence provider."
The Baltic Exchange used to deal with rogue counterparties by means of a gentlemanly warning to members posted on a notice board in the old Baltic Exchange.
Times have changed, and commercial and technical vetting is one of the subjects to be discussed at the forthcoming Tanker Shipping & Trade conference in London in November (see below for details).
Business, operational and technical issues impacting the crude, product and chemical tanker trades will be discussed in London at the Tanker Shipping & Trade Conference, Awards & Exhibition, 20-21 November 2018.
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