Daily Digest: Bimco revises war clauses, PRA warns of a challenging year, Lloyd’s approves Oak Re expansion

Catch up on the essential news and analysis from the Insurance Day experts

Revised Bimco clauses will provide charterers with greater clarity on war risk breach premiums Charterers will get greater clarity on the level of reimbursements for war risk insurance they typically provide to shipowners, under updated model war risk clause wordings published by shipowner trade association the Baltic and International Maritime Council (Bimco) this week. Other changes include an explicit right for owners to pull ships out of war zones and new arrangements for freight rate adjustments where port schedules have to be reworked because of hostilities, according to Stinne Taiger Ivø, the organisation’s deputy general secretary. While Bimco model clauses are widely incorporated in shipping contracts, using them remains voluntary, so the revised clauses have to take in owner and charterer interests alike, Ivø emphasised. The amendments should therefore be seen as modernisation rather than any major shake-up, with the main features of the old clauses intact, she added.