DealLawyers.com Blog

This Woodruff Sawyer blog discusses how the RWI industry is responding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The blog says that if your deal is in the underwriting process, you should expect to be asked several questions concerning business activities in Ukraine or Russia. This excerpt lays out the kind of questions you’re likely to see:

– Does the company have customers, suppliers, partners, vendors, or other business dealings in Russia or the Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk Regions of Ukraine? Does the Company directly or indirectly export any products (including software and technology) to, or import any product from, any of these locations? If so, are any of these products on the Commerce Control List (CCL)?

– Does the company utilize any Russian banks or have any debt with any Russian banks?

– Is the company transacting with any foreign entities owned 50% or more, directly or indirectly, by one or more Russian/Ukraine designated Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDNs) subject to Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) sanctions?

– Have you confirmed whether any exports are subject to the Expanded Military End Use/End-User Rule (MEU), and whether any exemptions apply?

Insurers are also going to want to hear about the due diligence investigation that you conducted to arrive at your answers to these questions.  If you can answer these questions satisfactorily, the blog says you may not see any exclusion language in your policy (RWI policies typically don’t include war exclusions).  If not, the blog walks through the kind of exclusion language that you can expect to see – and points out that it can vary in important ways.

– John Jenkins