Maritime & Merchant Bank (M&M), a niche Norwegian bank for the shipping and offshore sector, opened its doors for business Tuesday.
“We are very pleased to be able to start serving our customers,” said M&M CEO Halvor Sveen (pictured).
M&M aims to fill some of the gap created by the dramatic departure of so many European banks from ship finance.
“The sustained tight credit market for the maritime sector has left many companies owners seeking financing with few alternatives. We believe M&M can fill a need for a specialized bank with experience in shipping and offshore that is able to contribute to good solutions for our customers” Sveen said.
M&M will provide secured lending in the form of first priority terms loans. The bank will service the global maritime markets from its main office in Oslo.
