On 6 June 2017, the ICC Banking Commission launched a Digitalisation Working Group to anticipate and accompany the digitalisation of trade finance.
As announced at the time, one core activity was an evaluation of ICC rules in order to assess e-compatibility and ensure they are "e-compliant".
The work-stream tasked with this activity evaluated and concluded that two pieces of work needed to be taken forward: an update of the existing eUCP rules and the formulation of new rules covering electronic presentation for Documentary Collections (eURC).
Co-chaired by Gary Collyer and David Meynell, the drafting process came to an end in January 2019. Drafts of the rules had been sent to ICC National Committees as below:
ICC National Committees voted for approval of both sets of rules in March 2019, and they will come into force from 1stJuly 2019.
Texts of the rules will be made available online by the ICC.
Over the coming weeks, we will provide blogs on the content of each and every article of eUCP and eURC.