ICC documentary credits newsletter celebrates 12th anniversary

The winter edition of the newsletter, which has readers in more than 70 countries, features five articles written by members of the UCP consulting group, the body charged with reviewing drafts of the new UCP. A small drafting group of nine members provides the drafts. The articles, including a provocative interview by John Turnbull, co-chair of the consulting group, deal with issues ranging from the vexed question of what constitutes “negotiation” and availability of a credit to the appropriate manner of signing bills of lading.

The focus on the UCP revision is part of a continuing effort by the editors of Insight to deal with hot issues of current interest to letter of credit practitioners.

“Clearly, DCInsight is the place to go to prepare yourself for the revised UCP,” said King Tak Fung, a banking partner at the Hong Kong Office of DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary.

The new UCP revision, which will impact thousands of bankers, transporters and insurers worldwide, is expected to be approved by the ICC Banking Commission this October.

Since its beginnings in 1995, DCInsight has offered a wide range of features designed to appeal to bankers and other practitioners in trade finance. The current issue, no exception, contains articles on preventing the copying of electronic documents, the rush by banks to capitalize on Middle East letters of credit business and a critique of a controversial US manual aimed at stopping money launderers from using documentary credits.

Ron Katz, editor of DCInsight, attributes the newsletter’s success to its willingness to be provocative. “The masthead of this newsletter bears the name ‘ICC’”, Mr Katz said, “but that doesn’t mean our writers will always take the ICC point of view. Our job is to strike the right balance of opinion; then it’s up to the reader to decide.”