The ICC Banking Commission, meeting in Rome, had two very important items on its agenda. The first of these was the document International Standard Banking Practice for the Examination of Documents under Documentary Credits (ISBP). Containing more than 200 paragraphs demonstrating how UCP 500 works in practice, the ISBP is expected to encourage uniformity of practice worldwide and to dramatically cut the number of discrepancies on first presentation.

At the Commission meeting, the final vote in favour of the ISBP was 57-8, with 32 national committees voting in favour, three against. It was also decided that the ISBP would be an official ICC document, not merely an educational paper or a series of guidelines. As such, it represents official ICC policy.

It is important to note, as the document says, that the ISBP "does not amend UCP 500. It explains how the practices articulated in the UCP are to be applied by documentary practitioners. It is, of course, recognized that the law in some countries may compel a different practice than that stated here." In other words, the ICC recognizes the primacy of the UCP and do not expect that credits will be written subject to both the UCP and the ISBP. They do, however, expect that ISBP will be widely used in the day-to-day practice of documentary practitioners.

The ISBP does provide answers to the key questions posed by documentary practitioners, for example:

- What constitutes an "alteration" or "addition" to a document, when and how should these be authenticated?

- How should documents be signed, if this is not explicitly stated in the credit?

- How should one handle typing errors on documents regarding the name and address, different addresses of same company, etc.?

- Must trade terms, such as Incoterms, appear on the invoice?

- What is the "face" of a transport document and should a practitioner examine the reverse side to determine the name of carrier, description of the journey, etc.?;

- What is a full set of insurance documents, a copy vs. an original, endorsements, and the effective date?

The final text of the ISBP, incorporating some last technical corrections, is expected to be available in January, either through ICC national committees or from the ICC bookstore online at www.iccbooks.com. Attractive discounts will be available on bulk orders. The full text will be reproduced on DC-PRO, probably in February.

The Commission also decided to begin a review of UCP Articles, with an eye to producing a first draft of a revised UCP in the next eighteen months or so. But Commission members caution that this is only the beginning of a long, long process, and that no new UCP is expected for several years, certainly not in 2003 or 2004.

At the Rome Banking Commission meeting, Gary Collyer, the Commission's Technical Adviser, laid out for members some of the questions/issues that would have to be addressed concerning the seven UCP Articles that had generated more than 55 per cent of the queries on the rules. Only a partial list follows:

Article 9

- Issues relating to difference between payment, acceptance and negotiation.

- When is a 'sight' letter of credit a deferred payment (issue of number of days pre-payment notification)?

Article 13

- What is close of business for the purposes of reasonable time?

- What are banking days? Does this include short working days (Saturdays)?

Article 14

- The issues surrounding liability of issuing bank having sought and received waiver, holding documents at disposal, clarity of discrepancies observed and the discrepancies being contained within one single advice of refusal.

Article 21

- Review of non-transport documents (i.e. those not covered by articles 23-29) under this Article.

- Dating of documents after the shipment date.

Article 23

- Issue of bills of lading issued via the internet.

- What is deemed to be the bill of lading date?

- Ports of loading in the L/C appearing as the place of receipt on B/L and how to make this acceptable under the UCP.

Article 37

- Use of a shortened goods description in the invoice where the credit covers more than one type of goods and only one type shipped.

- Need for address of applicant or beneficiary to be exactly as per L/C and does this include fax, phone, email details?

Article 48

- This Article needs to consider the issues that have been raised and covered in the Transferable Credits and Article 48 paper (soon to be posted on the ICC website and on DC PRO).

Now that the issues in these Articles have been identified, the Commission will turn to the remaining 42 Articles and try to zero in on the issues they raise. A small group of Commission members will handle this task. In the meantime, no comments on any Article are being solicited from the outside until a first draft of a revision is produced, at which time all comments will be welcomed.

In addition to provisions currently in the UCP, the Commission will need to look closely at other ICC rules , i.e., URR 525, ISP98 and the eUCP, to see whether they should be incorporated into the revision. However, the decisions on how and whether to incorporate parts of all of thses other rules will be put off until the end of the review period.