• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.179-198
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• 2009

This paper aims at assessing reasonableness for restraining the independence principle in the operation of documentary credit in case of the illegality appeared in the underlying transactions. It has been a major rule under the independence principle to keep the credit operation free from the defences made by the issuing bank and/or credit applicant with a view to prevent the payment as specified under the credit. And also, it is generally accepted in the international commercial community to examine a presentation to determine, on the basis of the document alone, whether or not the documents appear on their face to constitute a complying presentation. Even though these two essences are major rules in the credit operation, if a presentation is made with the documents forged or materially fraudulent, the issuing bank can refuse to pay the documents in respect of fraud rule based on fraud exception for which a court of appropriate jurisdiction would enjoin such honour. Now we have newly come to another situation to determine whether or not we have to apply the same as fraud rule which is applicable to the illegality in the underlying contract under the new conception of illegality principle based on illegality exception. English Commercial Court handled the illegality case under the case of Mahonia Ltd., v. JP Morgan Chase Bank in 2003 and Justice Colman decided that issuing bank can rely on illegality affecting a letter of credit as an excuse for failure to pay. This judgement brought about the acceptance of illegality principle based on illegality exception as a defence to payment under a letter of credit as far as the illegality concerned in the underlying transactions. It is noticeable that this case will affect our international commercial community more to rely on the illegality in the underlying transactions as a good issue to stop payment for the issuing bank in the L/C operation.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.161-178
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• 2009

This article focuses on the enforceability of arbitration agreements m the dispute of standby letter of credit, especially with the case analysis of the leading case from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. In Nova Hut a.s. v. Kaiser Group International Inc. case, while the underlying contract contained an arbitration clause, a guarantee to assure contractor's performance did not contain an arbitration clause. Nova Hut drew on the standby for the Contractor's failure to deliver contractual obligations. Against the Kaiser's action under US Bankruptcy law, Nova Hut moved to stay the proceedings pending arbitration, to compel arbitration, and to dismiss the complaint. The US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware denied Nova Hut's motions. On appeal, Kaiser argued that it was not subject to arbitration since it was not a party to the contract. It also argued that Nova Hut had waived its right to arbitration by filing a proof of claim in the bankruptcy proceeding and commencing legal actions in other countries. The appeals court noted that in order to avoid arbitration on those grounds prejudice must be shown. It indicated that because there was no long delay in requesting arbitration and no discovery conducted m the course of litigation, the Kaiser could not demonstrate actual prejudice on the part of Owner. In light of public policy favoring arbitration, the nature of the claims in the parties' agreements, Kaiser's conduct in embracing the agreements, and their expectation of benefit, the appeals court ruled that the doctrine of equitable estoppel applied in requiring the Parent to arbitrate.

• The Journal of Information Technology
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.197-214
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• 2002

Electronic Commerce has already existed for over 20 years. The Bolero project initially had the support of TEDIS, and now is jointly financed by SWIFT(Society for World International Financial Telecommunications) which handles most of the electronic funds transfer for banks, and the Through Transport Mutual Assurance Association(the TT Club), a mutual insurance association most of whose members are drawn from the Multimodal transport industry or transport intermediaries. Bolero's mission is to provide guaranteed and secure delivery, in electronic form, of trade documentation, globally, based on a binding legal environment and common procedures, Bolero will also provide a platform for provision of neutral cross-industry services. TradeCard is a payment and settlement system that is an alternative to letters of credit. That is, TradeCard is a business-to-business e-commerce infrastructure that enables buyers and sellers to conduct and settle international trade transactions securely over the Internet. Paperless, payment-guaranteed international trade transactions - which eliminate the traditional letters of credit with electronic certifications - are widely considered the most difficult B2B transactions to conduct.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.13
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• pp.657-677
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• 2000

Since January 1, 1999, traders, bankers and their counsels worldwide have available for their use the first set of rules exclusively dealing with standby letters of credit:the International Standby Practices(ISP98). Numerous standbys have alreadby been issued in the United States and worldwide subject to the new ISP. The international banking community is anticipating an increasing demand from their customers to issue ISP-governed undertakings. Before the adoption of ISP, traders and bankers had only the choice of issuing their standby subject to the International Chamber of Commerce's(ICC) Uniform Customs and Practices for Documentary Credits(UCP) and, to a much lesser extent, to the ICC's Uniform Rules for Demand Guarantees(URDG). However, practice showed that UCP rules are not easily adapted to regulate transnational standbys. Indeed, UCP was conceived to govern documentary credits, which are intended to serve as a means of payment. By contrast, standbys are means of guaranty. The core of UCP cannot therefore be appropriate for standby practices and, as a consequence, a number of UCP's provisions have to be excluded in the standby's text. UCP's shortcomings indicated above fulfil the requirements of a key factor for the success of uniform rules. Indeed, to achieve success in the sense of meeting the market's acceptance, any such rules should fill a widely recognized need expressed by merchant community to which such rules are addressed. The ISP cleary has such a vocation. Nonetheless, the already largely encumbered regulatory environment of guarantee devices can hardly go unnoticed. The question therefore arises as to the proper place of ISP in such a context.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.12
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• pp.405-427
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• 1999

Although Uniform Customs and practice for Documentary(UCP) is not a law, it applies to most documentary credits and is binding on all parties unless otherwise expressly stipulated. Besides, Uniform Commercial Code(UCC) Article 5 was codified by the United States and was adopted by every state. Moreover, the New York version of the UCC Article 5-102(4) specifically providing that the UCC does not apply to letters of credit where the parties agree to be governed by the UCP. Identical nonuniform Articles were latter added in Alabama, Arizona, and Missouri. The fact that courts in forty-six of the fifty states are bound by Article 5. Until now, Article 5 of the UCC has probably had an impact on the decisions in New York and the New York common law. Therefore, I examined a few issues on application between Article 5 of the UCC and the UCP. First, although the UCP attempt to introduce a new for examination of document by incorporating "standard practice of financial institutions" and "international banking practice", the standards for documentary compliance are not clear. The UCC attempt to rely on the matter of interpretation for the court, but the UCP would probably be interested in examining in about bank's internal practices as reflected in UCP Articles. Second, the rule for nondocumentary conditions is a useful for stand-by credit transactions under the UCC, but these conditions would probably put the bank in an even worse position in case of documentary credit transactions under the UCP. Third, the UCP does not contain any provision governing the fraud exception, but the UCC codified the fraud and forgery rules developed through American case law. Fourth, the UCP treats the issue of transfer in much more detail than the UCC does. In contract, the UCP's treatment of assignment of proceeds is brief. Finally, I suggest that the fraud exception rules should be prescribed in the UCP in order to protect the issuing bank and the applicant when an unscrupulous party attempts to defraud.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.1-25
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• 2018

Bank payment obligations (BPO) have been used since 2013 as a payment solution in the business of supply chain finance. The BPO is an irrevocable undertaking of the obligor bank subject to the successful electronic matching of all required data sets with the established baseline in the TMA. Although the BPO should be regarded as similar to a letter of credit, it is a new payment solution based on advanced technology and data-driven mechanisms. The BPO differs from the credit in institutional terms such as bank-to-bank obligations, automated matching engines, and transfer and confirmation, etc. The BPO can also be used effectively as a stand-alone electronic solution to traditional instruments. it provides a new range of solutions to meet the ever-changing needs of trade customers. However, Operation of the BPO can leads to several issues including an assurance of payment between recipient banks and sellers because the BPO is a bank-to-bank obligation. The URBPO does not apply to relationships between banks and their business clients. So, the primary objective of this paper is to promote institutional understanding and present implications by reviewing major issues concerning the BPO as compared with the letter of credit from the institutional point of view. This research was based on documentary research focusing on the preceding research and the materials of ICC and SWIFT.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.233-252
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• 2017

The fast changes of global financial environment in recent years increase the risk of trade settlement. This means are required to minimize risk of non payment and to maximize secure payment. Open Account trade accounts for 90% of global trade flows. The O/A system means that the goods, along with all the necessary documents, are shipped and delivered before payment is due, usually within a time frame from 30 to 90 days. Meanwhile, Korean small and medium-sized export enterprises are compelled to globalize their activities owing to limitation and competitiveness of domestic marketplace. To keep face with the global trade settlement system and to support globalization of small and medium-sized export firms, the BPO together with Supply Chain Finance will be solutions. The introduction of the BPO system will allow banks to broaden O/A offerings to their client base and due to secure safety, sellers could ship the goods without delay according to orders and buyers could settle promptly by payment undertaking of correspondent banks. Therefore, it is more effective for companies which have sustainable customers and stable transaction. This study take a look at the trend of the global payment systems and suggested limitation of existed payment in order to derive improvement measures of electronic payment for small and medium-sized export enterprises.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.21
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• pp.99-127
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• 2003

Legal sources of fraud rule in documentary letter of credit, which have their origin in Sztejn Case can be traced to various rules or laws of international or domestic level ; URCG, URDG and ISP98 as ICC Rules, and UNCITRAL Convention as an international uniform law, and UCC as a domestic law and U.K. cases. Among them the combination of "material fraud" in UCC ${\S}5-109$ and the detailed list of the types of misconduct in UNCITRAL Convention may provide the best solution or standard in real application of the fraud rule in letter of credit transaction.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.49
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• pp.111-137
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• 2011

UCP 600 Article 14(b), providing rules for the period of the examination of documents, is a radical reorganization of UCP Article 13(b). The provision changes the period of time to a maximum of five banking days instead of reasonable time. One of the critical problems giving rise to the difficulty in interpretation and application is the question of fact that there may be two possible conflicting options in determining the time of checking documents presented. The one doctrine is fixed time(safe harbor) standard, and the other is hidden reasonableness standard. This study analyzes which option should be adopted for the optimal application standard by welfare effect methodology using consumer surplus approach and suggests that safe harbor standard should be optimal solution to the determination of period of examination of documents presented in letter of credit regime.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.43
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• pp.101-115
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• 2009

More than two years have passed since the latest UCP, Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits, 2007 Revision, ICC Publication No.600 became valid on July 1, 2007. There has been a lot of confusions in connection with the interpretation of the new UCP since July 1, 2007. Especially the transport document articles of the new UCP are the most confusing ones. Therefore, this work intends to study some points for practical attention of transport documents in the UCP 600. Transport documents can be divided into two kinds of documents such as marine transport documents and other transport documents. But most sellers and buyers distinguish two kinds of transport documents : the document of title and the document of non-title. Most traders consider the document of title importantly and ignore the document of non-title.