ICC Digital Library Forum

My understanding of an E- BL is that,
The shipper through a networked computer interface with his shipping co requests for a BL. The Co after issuance sends it back to the shipper electronically, who is able to take print of the BL and present the same to his banker. I am wondering, how the banker establishes the authenticity of this document, obviously when printed this document presumably would not have a signature (I am assuming that an electronic signature would not be similar to a manual, facsimile or a chop). I would appreciate comments from the members.

Khalid

VARIATION ON A THEME OF E-BILL OF LADING (NOT BACH)

E-bill of lading (E-B/L) may have many implications.

Other than those Khalid has already described here - a carrier sending the E-B/L for a shipper to print it out from his own printer (the APL practice for many years already), an E-B/L may be presented directly from the carrier to the issuing bank as allowed in the eUCP.

The eUCP also allows a beneficiary, instead of presenting an E-B/L, presents only a so called hyperlink, such as an URL (e.g. www.oocl.com) from where the issuing bank can get its original OOCL (owned by the family of the Chief Executive of Hong Kong SAR) E-B/L.

These are good measures to prevent fraudulent Bs/L that are so common today, like the Solo case in UAE, where Kahlid is from.

http://wwww.tolee.com

[edited 11/23/01 8:00:26 PM]

I have recently been contacted by APL representative in Jeddah regarding the B/L that Mr. T.O.Lee has mentioned in his comments. They want to introduce this new arrangement to some of their customers in Saudi Arabia. According the commercial manager of the agent, a physical bill of lading that bears a signature will be presented to the bank. The shipper will have access to the system of the shipping company through Internet, prepares the bill of lading and once approved by the shipping company prints the bill of lading. The signature on the bill of lading is an image signature that can be reproduced on the transport document once approved by the shipping company.

I have check one B/L that was prepared in a manner identified by APL agent as a Web-B/L that uses the same technology as the E-B/L. In fact I have tested it by providing the number of a bill of lading, issued in Sept 01, to the agent who was able to instantly retrieve the B/L and provided me with all the details.

Since banks don’t have records of the shipping company signatures, they don’t have the means to authenticate the signatures on bills of lading in general (including the conventional Bs/L). In addition, as per article 15 of UCP500, banks are not responsible for the effectiveness of documents.

Though from a bank point of view, I would consider this method as quasi-electronic commerce since a paper based document will be presented to the bank for negotiation, I believe this system is more secured than the conventional one. When in doubt, by a single call to the shipping company agent, one would know whether the B/L is authentic or not.

To know more on secure electronic commerce I would recommend that you read “General Usage for International Digitally Ensured Commerce (GUIDEC). It is a thirty-three-page document drafted by the ICC Information Security Working Party under the auspices of the ICC Electronic Commerce Project. Please go to URL http://www.iccwbo.org/home/guidec/guidec.asp. You will find information on Electronic Transactions and Information Security covering:

1. Open Networks
2. Information Security
3. Public Key Cryptography and Digital Signatures
4. Ensuring and Certification Authorities
5. Biometric Technology






[edited 11/26/01 11:23:43 AM]

There is an update on “General Usage for International Digitally Ensured Commerce (GUIDEC)" as of October 2001. If interested go to ýhttp://www.iccwbo.org/home/guidec/guidec_two/foreword.aspý to read version II of the ICC guidelines.