The COVID-19 pandemic has seen classification societies around the world adapting their services to cope with global travel restrictions, allowing inspections to be conducted remotely and for more services to be available online. For the Korean Register, increasing digitalisation and embracing new technologies has been a long-held strategy and the society quickly adapted its services to support customer’s business operations in these challenging times.

KR’s remote survey service was launched over a year ago and is well established, conducted via bi-directional communication with a vessel, by sharing photographs, video contents and digital images from the ship. It can be completed effectively and confidently anywhere in the world without requiring a surveyor’s attendance on board.

Travel restrictions as a result of COVID-19 have prevented KR from conducting some physical surveys and the need for social distancing has made it impossible to send surveyors on board ships. In these cases, KR has been granting extensions for one month or the period of a voyage to the next…

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How the banking sector chooses to respond to the significant impact caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will have a major influence on how the financial system evolves over the next decade.

The pandemic has posed significant challenges to both our economy and the financial system as a whole. We expect it will take some time before we see a full recovery, Reserve Bank – Te Pūtea Matua Deputy Governor and General Manager of Financial Stability Geoff Bascand said in a speech delivered today.

“New Zealand’s financial sector has proved resilient to the dual health and economic shocks and indeed, supported the business and household sectors through strong business continuity arrangements, the accommodation of many customers through the restructuring of borrowing terms, and only a relatively modest tightening of lending standards.

“A financial crisis and ‘credit crunch’ on top of an economic crisis would be hugely disruptive for New Zealanders’ wellbeing. The ability of financial institutions to absorb shocks, accept risk and continue lending in the face of shocks is foundational to our regulatory framework.”

Banks entered the crisis having built up strong capital and…

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