About

The Standard Chartered legal team in Ireland, which focuses solely on aviation finance, operates as a flat structure with three senior legal counsel based in Ireland who report into the head of legal for Standard Chartered’s Structured Finance division, who is based in London. The three senior legal counsels based in Ireland, namely, Aisling Blanchard, Susie Bregazzi and Fintan Jackson are supported by transaction manager Joanna Stapleton and legal executive Eoin O’Riordan. The three principal members of the legal team in Ireland were all hired within the last three years and have spent much of this period looking to update and streamline the various processes and procedures in place which had become outdated and out of line with current market practices including: putting in place new lease documentation to ensure that the business is in line with current market practice; redrafting the current sanctions provisions for the aviation business; and revising the current process and procedures around deal execution to ensure more efficient working practices. Standard Chartered also provide a variety of debt products to its aviation clients which distinguishes the bank from most other lessors in the market and the legal team works on all of these deals. Some in particular include: the establishment of SDH Wings International Leasing which is an aircraft leasing joint venture established by Standard Chartered (10%) and Sichuan Development International Holdings (90%) and the setting up of Standard Chartered’s own Tianjin leasing entities for leasing aircraft into Chinese carriers. The team took the first direct order for the business of 10 aircraft from an aircraft manufacturer (Boeing 737-800) which were then all placed on lease to Chinese carriers, established a new leasing platform for business in the US and put in place an AFIC aircraft non-payment insurance product for an established client. Its major challenges, as Jackson sees them, are Brexit, a highly competitive market with new players emerging, and that ‘being owned by a regulated entity means that we are subject to more stringent policies and procedures than other aircraft lessors’. The team is credited for rising to these matters effortlessly and for continuing to thrive.