ICC publishes new volume of Banking Commission official opinions

The 69 opinions in the current volume are official Banking Commission responses to three years of questions raised by practitioners concerning how the latest ICC rules on documentary credits, collections and demand guarantees are applied in daily practice.

The bulk of opinions in the current volume deal with UCP 600, the latest revision of ICC’s universally used rules on letters of credit, which came into effect in 2007. Widely praised for the clarity and precision of its language, its new structure and its recognition of the key changes having taken place in trade finance, UCP 600 has become the standard text practitioners adhere to when framing transactions using letters of credit.

But, aswith any rules, no matter how precise, there will always be concerns as to how they are to be interpreted in specific situations. The Banking Commission Opinions fill in details that the rules, being more general in nature, cannot always provide.

“The opinions are a necessary complement to the rules,” emphasized Gary Collyer, Technical Advisor to the Commission. “They are widely cited by judges when deciding disputes involving the ICC rules of practice.”

Apart from opinions on UCP 600, the current volume also contains opinions on ICC’s International Standard Banking Practice for the Examination of Documents under Document Credits (ISBP 681), the Uniform Rules for Collections (URC 522), and the Uniform Rules for Demand Guarantees (URDG 758). The demand guarantee rules, three years in preparation, came into effect in 2010, and the current volume contains the first opinions issued under the new URDG 758.

For ease of reference, the current book also contains three cross-reference indexes, as well as the full texts of UCP 600 and ISBP 681.

“This volume of opinions belongs on the shelves of trade finance practitioners everywhere,” said Thierry Senechal, Policy Manager of the ICC Banking Commission.

ICC Banking Commission Opinions 2009-2011 is available in both hard copy and e-book formats. Order your copy now