Under the auspices of the Digitalisation Working Group, the ICC Banking Commission has established a new sub-group looking at trade automation, with specific focus during the initial stages on the document checking function.
We have touched upon Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) in previous blogs, and these technologies are likely to make a huge impact in the one area that is still, primarily, paper-based; examination of documents under documentary credits.
The intention is to create a set of practice guidelines that will focus upon market gaps, evolving technology, and automation levels, in order to establish transparent and well-defined ground rules around such technological capabilities.
At this stage, several meetings have been concluded with three active workstreams:
In addition, a survey was sent to all ICC Banking Commission members in June 2020, with a request for information on their current document checking activities. More than 60 have responded, primarily banks, but also including a number of corporates.
We will keep you updated as this moves forward.