Marsh has made senior appointments within its Aircraft Finance Insurance Consortium (AFIC), a product it launched earlier this year to fill a gap left by US Exim.

Robert Morin joins AFIC as transaction and business development leader, based in Washington DC. He previously worked at US Exim as senior vice-president of business and product development, a position he held since 2014. Morin was employed by US Exim for over 20 years and oversaw the expansion of the bank’s aircraft financing programme.

Gabriel Okolski is appointed as credit and financial analyst, also based in Washington DC. He also joins from US Exim, where he was a senior transportation loan officer, responsible for more than US$3bn in large commercial aircraft and helicopter financing. Before joining the bank in 2011, Okolski was employed by the US Department of Transportation as a transportation industry analyst for two years.

AFIC was launched earlier this year to provides an alternative to US Exim’s aircraft finance insurance products: the bank used to be a significant supporter of Boeing exports, but has been unable to guarantee exports of more than US$10mn for over a year, due an incomplete board of directors.

Korean Air was the first airline to benefit from Marsh’s new product in April this year.

Bruce Fine, global leader of AFIC, says: “AFIC is a significant development in the diversification of aircraft finance globally. We’re delighted to have people of Bob and Gabe’s calibre, both of whom have done seminal work in the convergence of airplane risk capital, law, regulation and loan protection, join our team and take AFIC to the next stage of its development.”