Event report: BU Claims and Recoveries Specialist Meeting 2022 – London
Romanie Peters and Bram Van Hyfte from Credendo ECA reflect on June’s BU Claims and Recoveries specialist meeting in London
From 9 to 10 June 2022, UK Export Finance (UKEF) hosted a successful edition of the Berne Union’s Claims & Recoveries Specialist Meeting in London. The agenda of the two-day meeting was filled with plenty of interesting topics to discuss and it resulted in a lively and social gathering with industry peers.
On the first day, we started by diving into the BU statistics on claims and recoveries which showed that the COVID-19 period has generated, in general, fewer claims, except in the aviation and transport business. In the latter sector, mainly UKEF, BPI France and EDC were hit.
Further, the participants were treated to expert insights into the huge impact of sanctions on the insurance sector in light of the Ukraine crisis. The far-reaching scope of the sanctions, and the financial consequences of any possible breach thereof, were some of the highlighted items insurers were made aware of, among others.
In addition, in one of the breakout sessions we discussed the difficulties of receiving payments and recoveries due to the Russian countersanctions. The exchange of views among insurers was most valuable.
The second main discussion focused on the claims experience relating to the offshore services industry. This was – together with the aviation and general transport business – hugely impacted during COVID-19, leading to an increase of claims. With the worst being behind us, the current market outlook is expected to be positive, as the transition towards greener energy and the increased focus on energy security will lead to more greener and sustainable investments in the offshore gas, oil and wind sectors.
These main discussions were interspersed with more intimate breakout sessions on a variety of subjects. The ‘Country Café’ sessions allowed participants to share their claims and recoveries experiences with debtors based in countries such as Ethiopia, Zambia, Kenya, and China.
There were also a lot of talks about sovereign claims and it was interesting to go into detail on sovereign claims restructuring, especially on what the expectations of the private sector and the non-Paris Club members are in that regard. An increased interest was noted in the process of the Common Framework.
During the other breakout sessions, participants engaged into more technical, often legal discussions, such as the sale of restructured debt before or after compensation and the working mechanisms of assignment and subrogation clauses.
The second day of the Claims & Recoveries Specialist Meeting kicked off with a presentation by the Canadian ECA, EDC on how automation, digitisation and AI can make the handling process of (smaller) claims more efficient and how it can increase both the job and client satisfaction in that regard.
The key takeaway was that by setting the right thresholds and by repeatedly evaluating and adjusting the automated process, progress can be made, even if budgets and resources are limited. Subsequently, expert insights were given on the best practices in drafting contractual arbitration clauses in both commercial and insurance contracts and the enforcement thereof.
Given the increasing international and more complex nature of transactions and notwithstanding the high cost of such proceedings, arbitration has proven to be an effective instrument in dispute resolution, especially in these jurisdictions where local court proceedings lack time-wise efficiency. It also offers a non-biased case approach.
Finally, this great learning opportunity was concluded with two member presentations on the handling of specific claims and the challenges related to them.
Our overall conclusion: we were very grateful for the great in-person experience and glad to have participated in the lively debates!
