When it made a strategic decision in August 2020 to pull back from shipping clients in the US and Asia and retrench to key customers in its European core, lender ABN Amro had a choice: preside over the run-off of existing loans over time, or sell the portfolio.

In the end, it would up doing a little bit of both, global shipping head Joep Gorgels explained after his bank's announcement of a $700m sale to French lender Credit Agricole.