Stephen Fewster's 40 years in banking have included 28 in shipping, of which 15 have been with ING. It has been a long learning curve but in an industry as cyclical as shipping, experience counts.

As ING’s global head of shipping, Fewster says he keeps to a strict formula when doing business. This is one reason why the bank has been growing its deepsea shipping portfolio, while some peers have been retrenching or exiting from lending.