At its upcoming meeting in Istanbul on 21-22 November, the ICC Banking Commission will hear a first presentation of what may eventually become a supplement to UCP 500 for electronic documents. A working party has been preparing a first draft of what such a supplement could look like.

Working party members stress that the supplement is not intended to change UCP 500, which is largely used for paper documents. It is, they say, aimed at providing guidance where a transaction consists of electronic documents, or, alternatively, part paper and part electronic documents. Most observers see the documentary credit process becoming increasingly electronic, if not in the near term, sometime in the not distant future.

One of the issues the working party has to deal with is whether the supplement, now termed "eUCP", should be automatically incorporated into UCP 500 where electronic documents are involved, or whether it would have to be expressly incorporated by the parties. Members expect vigourous debate on this point.

Elsewhere, the eUCP will attempt to define a number of terms, such as "authenticate", "electronic signature", "electronic record", "appear on their face" and "receipt", where these terms apply to electronic documents. Some of the terms appear in the UCP 500, but in the electronic world, they could have different implications.

Opinions differ as to when the eUCP will be ready for public use. The working party hopes to produce a final draft that could be approved by the full Banking Commission in May 2001, but the history of change to the UCP suggests that revisions generally take longer than anticipated. In any case, ICC national committees will have to make their comments on any draft, and these comments will have to be taken into account in the final version.

Following the Banking Commission meeting, DC-PRO Focus will provide readers with an update of any early decisions taken on the eUCP.

This article represents the views of the author and not necessarily those of the ICC or any of the other partners in DC-PRO.