As mentioned in earlier blogs, the ICC Banking Commission released in July 2019 the eUCP version 2.0 and eURC version 1.0.
Owing to the global pandemic, these rules have received increased interest over the past few months. There is a growing realisation by practitioners that paper documents are causing delays and disruption.
The focus of the eRules is concentrated upon the presentation of electronic records under the eUCP and the eURC, alone or in combination with paper documents, and not to issuance of an eUCP credit or an eURC collection instruction.
With respect to the eUCP, this decision was based on the fact that documentary credits had, for many years, already been issued electronically. In addition, there was concern that any rules surrounding issuance could encumber present and evolving practices of electronic issuance, whilst additionally endangering the technological neutrality of the rules.
The principles on which the eRules have been based are the underlying principles in the UCP and URC and standard practice currently existing for eCommerce transactions. As such, most of these principles are reflected in the definitions contained in eUCP Article e3 and eURC Article e4.
Whilst the rules are fairly straightforward and should not cause any problems for users, it makes sense to put in place certain preparations in order to ensure that no issues will arise. We have outlined a few of these below:
A more in-depth review can be found at