A session was held under the heading ‘e-compatibility of ICC rules'.
This was divided into 2 parts:
- Update on the revision of eUCP
- Development of eURC
Opening remarks stated that each draft of the rules has received far fewer comments from ICC National Committees (NC's) then the previous draft, a pleasing development in that it infers a growing acceptance of the proposed text.
Draft 1: 1,300 comments
Draft 2: 230 comments
Draft 3: 107 comments
Overall, 24 NC's responded to the latest drafts. It was mentioned that an initial review of NC comments revealed that the number of contentious issues has been greatly reduced, and that an accord has been obtained on most topics.
Selected highlights:
- Whether the eUCP should incorporate the concept of UTC (Universal Time Coordinated), as referred to in URBPO, in order to define the latest time that electronic records could be presented to a bank. No definitive majority response. As stated in the ‘ICC Guide to the eUCP', an issuer would be well advised to state the time for the close of business in an eUCP credit. The recommendation is that the UTC concept will not, at this stage, be included within the eUCP rules. Should it be deemed necessary, the concept could be included in a future version of eUCP.
- The precedent for including any ‘Preliminary Considerations' was established in ISBP, and with DOCDEX (preamble). The two preliminary considerations, and there could be more as this drafting process continues, highlight what is fact, i.e., that the mode of presentation to a bank for examination and the mode for delivery of that presentation to the applicant, once honour has occurred, is outside the scope of the rules. Majority viewpoint is to include these issues within a section titled ‘Preliminary Considerations'.
- No need to introduce D/DP in the eURC as URC 522 provides for delivery on ‘other terms and conditions'.
- There is absolutely no assumption that bills of exchange will not exist in electronic form; in fact, it is a definite. The eURC rules will allow for both and paper electronic bills of exchange.
Next steps:
- Draft 4 of eUCP and eURC will be distributed to ICC National Committees in early November 2018.
We will keep you updated as this topic progresses.