HSBC has drawn attention to a growing funding crisis in the shipping industry.

In its latest report, the bank's shipping services blames the decision by the European Banking Authority to raise banking reserves.

It says that European banks such as BNP Paribas and Societe General will dump $150bn in risk-weighted assets to improve their ratios.

Italy's Unicredit and Germany's Commerzbank are likely to follow suit, and all these are large lenders to the shipping sector.

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