LONDON (Bloomberg) — Shipping companies can borrow money more easily now than a year ago, when the banking industry was roiled by the world financial crisis, said commodity carrier Paragon Shipping Inc.

"It's to do with the situation within banks themselves," Michael Bodouroglou, the Voula, Greece-based company's chief executive officer, said by phone. "A lot of the banks have now put their houses in order."

Banks around the world, many now partly state-owned after receiving government bailouts, are starting to lend to companies and consumers again after selling units and shedding risky assets and bad debts to clean up balance sheets. Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, which has a shipping business centre in London, is the UK's biggest state-owned lender.

Banks are "very much" more selective in making lending decisions and are financing a smaller portion of takeover costs, according to the CEO. Borrowing has become more expensive since the credit crisis, Bodouroglou said.

Borrowing at 300 basis points above the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, is "probably the average industry level," he said, compared with 100 points before the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 2008. One hundred basis points make up a percentage point. Libor is the rate banks charge to lend to each other.

The Baltic Dry Index, a measure of commodity shipping costs, plunged in 2008 as the global crisis cut into world trade and forced some shippers to seek waivers on loan conditions. Shippers were more likely to sell bonds to raise finance as they struggled to get funds from traditional lenders, Perry van Echtelt, executive director at Fortis Bank Nederland NV, told a conference in London last October.

Bodouroglou declined to confirm or deny a report printed in TradeWinds today that Paragon received a loan extension from HSBC in connection with its $41 million purchase of Dream Seas in April. The panamax vessel was built in 2009, according to the company's website.

Paragon specialises in hauling bulk commodities such as coal, iron ore and grains, the website shows. It operates 12 vessels with another seven expected to enter the fleet next year and in 2012, according to the website.