When the ICC International Court of Arbitration Bulletin was launched by my predecessor, Court Chairman Alain Plantey, a decade ago, it would have been hard to foresee the subject matter of its tenth annual Special Supplement. Banking and insurance were then still two worlds apart. The Court's statistical reports showed finance as but one of several components of the service sector, and references to insurance were rare. More recently, however, they have increasingly joined hands, and the expression 'financial services' has come to include insurance as well as the traditional aspects of banking and finance.

Arbitration has much to commend it for this sector of the economy. Not least amongst its advantages is the possibility it offers of having disputes settled by specialists in the field. This is an important consideration in matters so complex as modern financing mechanisms and areas where trade usages play an important role. A similar benefit is to be had from specialized expertise services, of which ICC's own DOCDEX system is a prime example.1

Furthermore, disputes may and frequently do involve multiple parties from different countries. Arbitration is well equipped to cope with such complex transnational situations: as a neutral forum, it is more likely than a national court to enlist the cooperation of all concerned, which can only enhance the authority of the final award and the speed with which it is achieved.

It is no surprise therefore to learn that in ICC arbitration an increasing number of cases registered with the International Court of Arbitration relate to the financial services sector. The 1999 statistics showed that out of the 529 cases registered with the Court 19 fell into this category. At the time of writing this figure is already up by 50% for the year 2000. Of the 107 parties involved half are from Western Europe and a quarter from North America, leaving the rest spread between other regions. The amounts at issue in these cases range widely from US$ 62,000 to US$ 170 million, although the largest proportion falls into the US$ 1 million/10 million bracket.

We publish in these pages a selection of articles representing both civilist and common law traditions. The increasing move towards arbitration in the financial services sector is explained and analysed and some of the legal and practical problems that may be encountered discussed. The authors are all specialists in their various fields and offer valuable insights into areas where arbitration is likely to be called upon more and more in the years to come.

Robert Briner

Chairman

ICC International Court of Arbitration

1
The DOCDEX Rules were presented and reproduced in full in the ICC International Court of Arbitration Bulletin, Volume 8/No. 2 (December 1997), pp. 51-59. The Rules are also published separately in ICC Publication No. 577, available free from the ICC International Court of Arbitration.