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The initial drafts of eUCP version 2.0 and eURC version 1.0 were sent to ICC National Committees (NC's) on 25 September 2017, with a deadline of 27 November 2017 for response. At the request of a number of ICC NC's, based upon a communications issue, it was decided to extend the deadline to 28 February 2018. 

Pursuant to feedback on the original drafts, work commenced on a 2^nd draft, which was subsequently distributed to ICC NC's on 20 March 2018, with a deadline of 25 May 2018 for response.  A 3^rd draft of the rules was sent out on 20 July 2018, providing a deadline of 28 September 2018 for response.  The 4^th draft of the rules was disseminated on 6 November 2018, indicating a deadline of 4 January 2019 for feedback. 

At that stage, and following a thorough review of all comments received to date, it was considered to be an appropriate time to draft a final version of the rules. These were consequently sent to ICC NC's on 31 January 2019, specifying that the deadline for voting would be 22 March 2019. It is worth commenting that this timeframe was only 16 months after distribution of the first draft and included an enforced 3-month extension, as mentioned above.

During the course of the first four drafts, almost 2,000 comments were received from ICC NC's. For the purposes of transparency and clarity, every comment received an individual response. As a valuable reference source, the ‘ICC Guide to the eUCP' (ICC Publication No. 639) and the work of the authors, Professor James E. Byrne and Dan Taylor, was gratefully acknowledged. 

Approval

For the first time in the history of the ICC Banking Commission, a new approach was introduced for the ICC rules voting process, via the Simply Voting platform. This initiative provided an online voting system to be used for the approval of the revised eUCP and new eURC rules. 

Each NC was requested to choose one designated representative with the right to cast the vote on its behalf and the platform was opened for voting from 11 until 22 March 2019.  NC's were invited to vote on the revised eUCP and new eURC separately by choosing ‘YES' or ‘NO' to the following options:

• Does your National Committee approve the Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits (UCP 600) Supplement for Electronic Presentation (eUCP) Version 2.0?
• Does your National Committee approve the Uniform Rules for Collections (URC 522) Supplement for Electronic Presentation (eURC) Version 1.0?

Voting result:

• Votes were received from 49 NC's, plus one further NC vote after the voting deadline had passed. 
• The eUCP received 100% approval with two countries abstaining.
• The eURC received 97.5% approval (on a weighted basis) with one county voting ‘no' and two countries abstaining.
• Based upon the above, both sets of rules came into force on 1 July 2019. 

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