The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and financial messaging services provider Swift have released the first application programming interface (API) industry standards for bank guarantees and standby letters of credit (L/Cs).

The collaboration brings together ICC and Swift members, including banks, corporates, fintech platforms, and service providers with the aim of creating industry standards to streamline the entire life cycle of financial instruments, including issuance, advising, amendments, cancellations and claims.

Specifically guarantees and standby L/Cs

The API aims to help provide standardisation and real-time visibility to enhance interoperability, operational efficiency and enable seamless integration of banking capabilities into corporate treasury, enterprise resource planning systems and third-party platforms, specifically for guarantees and standby L/Cs.

The API model is now ready for testing, implementation and adoption by the industry, according to a statement issued by the ICC and Swift.

Urgent need for standardisation

It says the model aligns with Swift message types (MT) standards and future ISO 20022 compliance to minimise disruption to existing trade systems.

This approach aims to ensure a future-proof implementation and addresses the urgent need for standardisation in the trade API space.

More information on the ICC and Swift's first API standards for guarantees and standby L/Cs, together with relevant links, can be found here.

This article represents the views of the author and not necessarily those of the ICC or Coastline Solutions.