Article

by David Meynell

To the best of my recollection, the first Banking Commission meeting I attended was back in spring 1992. In those days, all the meetings were held in the auditorium of the former ICC headquarters in Paris. And there we stayed for a number of years until the number of attendees grew too large.

Particularly useful was the fact that many of us used to stay at the hotel which backed onto the ICC, so we were able to take advantage of a useful shortcut to meetings - very handy for the winter meetings. And opposite our hotel was our usual restaurant for lunch, where Bernard Wheble, the legendary former Chair of the Commission, normally had a reserved table. We never had to travel too far to find anyone!

Continuity is very important, and it is good to see that there are still a f ew of us around who attended the meetings in those da ys - in fac t, there are some current attendees who go even further back.

At the time, Charles de Busto was the Chair of the Commission, with Bernard Wheble taking on the role of Honorary Chairman, in conjunction with his role as Chair of the ICC UK Banking Committee.

Agenda

The agenda of the meetings used to concentrate primarily on traditional trade products, and a large proportion of the time was spent on the ICC Opinions, handled very ably by an ex-colleague of mine from Deutsche Bank, Ferdinand Mueller. It should be remembered that this was before the emergence of e-commerce technology, and our prime business in those days still surrounded the letter of credit.

Meetings in Paris continued until, in 1996, a decision was made for the April 1997 meeting of the Commission to be held in Shanghai. As can be expected, the number of attendees from Europe decreased, but it was a fascinating experience for those of us who were fortunate enough to be there. I flew into Shanghai with Gary Collyer, for what I believe may have been his first meeting as the Commission's new Technical Advisor.

Early focus

One clear memory I have of this meeting was a discussion with Don Smith and Dan Taylor, during which I was shown a copy of a publication titled SBPED - Standard Banking Practice for the Examination of Letter of Credit Documents - the precursor to the ISBP. Even at that time, the potential for a set of guidelines that would have a global impact rather than being US-centric was obvious. History has proved this to be a very valuable publication indeed.

Another outstanding 1997 event was an invitation, extended both to Gary Collyer and myself, to attend and participate in a Working Party on the Application of UCP in Asia. Why did it stand out? Not only because it was a valuable exercise, but also because it was held on a cruise ship sailing from Singapore and Penang - perhaps an idea that we could repeat one day.

In any event, it's worth repeating the findings of that Working Group are still relevant - and valid -today.

"The great majority of complaints [are] based on incorrect practices and procedures by certain banks, rather than on difficulties of interpretation of UCP 500 provisions.

[This is] not unique to Asia; similarly incorrect or uninformed banking practice [is] common elsewhere.

[There is a] great diversity of interpretation regarding whether or not certain common documentary errors or omissions amounted to discrepancies."

Some things never change.

New venues, new subjects

Numbers attending the Banking Commission remained at a level that could still be accommodated in Paris, but it was evident that at some stage, an alternative would be required. Furthermore, the experience in Shanghai showed the value of holding meetings in other venues. And in fact, this was also achieved in 1997, when it was decided to hold the autumn meeting of the Commission in Miami, in conjunction with the annual IFSA meeting. Needless to say, it was an excellent opportunity to network with a number of US-based trade bankers.

Over the next few years, new issues began to surface on the agenda of the meetings, not least due to the ongoing electronic developments in the world of trade.

Of course, there was still a lot to do in the traditional fields. I was fortunate around this time to be invited to be a member of the w orking group for the drafting of ISP98, another fascinating project that involved working closely with a number of US bankers.

But it was clear that trade needed to move into a dematerialized environment to reduce the need for paper. Because many organizations were introducing electronic trade solutions with a diversification of rules and guidelines, ICC made the decision to develop their own rules, a project that produced the eUCP, the supplement to UCP 500 for electronic presentation. I am sure that those of us who were on the working group, a few of whom still attend Commission meetings, will agree that this was not the easiest set of rules w e ever produced. Practice was limited and diverse. But having since worked on the Uniform Rules for the Bank Payment Obligation (URBPO), I believe that the final eUCP rules were solid. It's just a pity we were too far ahead of the times , and the rules have not enjoyed the success we've seen with the UCP.

ISBP and the Opinions

I referred earlier to the ISBP. This publication has proved to be a great global success. I was originally invited to be on the working group that established the first version, but unfortunately had to decline due to conflicting work commitments. Fortunately, I was in a position to join the group for the most recent revision. It was an absorbing experience that showed the value of involving ICC national committees from all over the world. Whilst this makes for a complex task due to the myriad of comments received, it has a positive side in that the final version can genuinely be referred to as international standard banking practice.

As we know, Gary Collyer has been the Technical Advisor for the Banking Commission for a number of years. He is leaving the Commission with an important legacy of information in the form of the ICC Opinions. Along with Rene Mueller and Hari Janakiraman, I enjoyed a year as a member of the Group of Experts supporting Gary in the preparation and finalization of responses to queries. It was a stimulating exercise and opened my eyes to the amount of work required to produce the Opinions. More importantly, it gave me some important grounding now that I have been appointed as one of the three new Technical Advisors.

New challenges

The recent implementation of the URBPO has created new challenges for the Banking Commission. The rollout of these new rules has been exceedingly rapid by ICC standards, and no doubt this will be a key consideration in developing further rules and revisions.

The future of the Banking Commission is likely to be more far-reaching in impact than ever before. The wide variety of issues now covered by the Commission is providing significant value to the industry via initiatives such as the Trade Register, Compliance and AML, market intelligence, regional commissions, the BPO review and education groups. I am pleased to still be part of it and look forward to a greater international role for the Commission in the years ahead.

David Meynell is Owner, TradeLC Advisory.

His e-mail is davidmeynell@aol.com and his website is www.davidmeynell.com