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The UCP Drafting Group, following the approval of UCP 600 in October 2006, were charged with the updating of the ISBP publication 645 in order to align it with the content of the revised UCP. The alignment involved several changes:

- The UCP article number changes had to be reflected in the updated ISBP;

- Specific ISBP paragraphs that had now been incorporated in UCP 600 were removed from the former publication;

- The language and style of ISBP 681 was changed to bring it in line with that of UCP 600.

The Drafting Group spent considerable time putting together the revised wording. It entertained comments from the countries of the Banking Commission, with 19 countries having sent in their suggestions. Unfortunately, a number of the comments went beyond the Drafting Group's remit and suggested changing the unrelated wording in the ISBP or including new provisions within it. But the Drafting Group was only tasked with aligning the text of the updated ISBP with that of UCP 600.

Because of the incorporation of certain ISBP paragraphs in UCP 600 and other changes, ISBP 681 now contains 185 paragraphs as opposed to the 200 in ISBP 645. The Banking Commission Decision on what constitutes an original document, "The determination of an "Original" document in the context of UCP 500 sub-Article 20(b)", was largely incorporated in UCP 600, but because it is somewhat complex, its entire text was placed in an Appendix to ISBP 681.

One point needs to be stressed. The term "international standard banking practice" as incorporated in UCP 600 encompasses more than can be found in ICC Publications 645 and 681. The Introduction to the updated ISBP makes this clear: "No single publication can anticipate all the terms or the documents that may be used in connection with documentary credits or their interpretation under UCP 600 and the standard practice it reflects. However, the Task Force that prepared Publication 645 endeavoured to cover terms commonly seen on a day-to-day basis and the documents most often presented under documentary credits." It well may be that in the course of time, in Opinions issued by the Banking Commission under UCP 600, the term "international standard banking practice" will be broadened to include practices not found in the two ISBP publications. What 645 and 681 provide - as the Introduction states - is coverage of terms "commonly seen on a day-to-day basis". The Banking Commission vote on the updated ISBP in Singapore was never in doubt. But it was reassuring to the Drafting Group and to Commission members that it turned out to be unanimous. Countries present and/or voting "yes" on the text were as follows (the votes were allotted on a weighted basis):

ISBP 681 is available either from ICC national committees or online at www.iccbooks.com