Industry Endorsements
BIMCO Endorsement – February 2010
The Federation of National Associations of Shipbrokers and Agents (FONASBA) has taken a daring initiative towards setting quality standards for ship agents and brokers. The Quality Standard (QS) will serve to assist shipowners and operators in their selection of who is to represent them. This will ensure a specific level of knowledge and experience as well as financial standing of their selected representative.
INTERTANKO ENDORSEMENT – April 2008
INTERTANKO wholeheartedly welcomes the introduction of FONASBA’s QUALITY STANDARD for SHIPBROKERS and AGENTS and is pleased to have contributed in a small way through our participation in FONASBA’S Port Tramp Agency Working Group (PTAWG). We believe that this Standard will provide the basis for a further world-wide quality enhancement of shipbroker and port agency services.
Certification in the News
Dry Cargo International – February 2017
QUALITY SHIP AGENTS – The Cost of Providing Value
Dry Cargo International – February 2016
AGENTS OF CHANGE – Why ship agents are more essential than ever.
FONASBA Quality Standard – Raising the bar for agents and brokers
Dry Cargo International – February 2015
ASBA’s Landmark Certification Celebrates 10 Years
Dry Cargo International – February 2014
ASBA Quality Standard: Ensuring Quality and Integrity
Two-and-a-half years after it was first launched, a professional-standards benchmark for ship agent and brokers has won the backing of the world’s biggest shipowners’ association.
How can a shipowner reassure himself when he places his very expensive vessel and cargo with an wgent who is not obliged to prove he is abnle to handle the business, or, crucially, that he is sufficiently resourced to do so?
DCi Editorial Vet Agents, May 2007
“Vetting” is the process of examination and evaluation by which one party ascertains the quality of another party writes Jeanne Cardona, Executive Director, Association of Ship Brokers & Agents (USA), Inc.
Although charterers have been vetting ships for quite some time, the concept has yet to reach the agency industry as a whole. INTERTANKO, in particular, has engaged in many discussions regarding the vetting of agents within this Associate Member Committee over the past couple of years.
Baltic Exchange News, March 2006
The Association of Ship Brokers and Agents (U.S.A.), Inc. agent members raise the bar for agency companies in the US by implementing a certification process that is inteded to assure principals of member agent’s quality and credibility…
Supporting ships’ agents is all very well, but what about “bad apples” who leave principals in the lurch? The Association fo Ship Brokers and Agents has decided to play policeman, imposing tough new guidelines for its agent members. But ASBA wields much more than a big stick.
The certification process, which is mandatory for all agent members, is intended to assure existing and prospective shipowner clients of the quality and credibility of the firms in three areas —sound handling of principals’ cash, adequacy of insurance coverage and competence of staff.
Recent high profile bankruptcies which left millions of dollars of Principals’ funds unaccounted for resulted in [ASBA’s] Agency Affairs Committee determination to provide a vetting mechanism for vessel operators to use to secure professional and trustworthy representation for their vessels calling North America.