Does a New York court have jurisdiction over an Indian collecting bank that is alleged to have violated the Uniform Rules for Collections (URC 522) for neither collecting and remitting funds to pay for shipments represented by the documents forwarded to it nor returning originals of several of the documents sent to it for collection? 

The Court of Appeal in England has decided in MUR Shipping BV v. RTI Ltd [2022] EWCA Civ 1406 (27 October 2022) that sometimes a party must accept payment in Euros, even though the contract expressly stipulated payment to be made in US Dollars. Although the case is not about independent undertakings, DCW readers might ask if the decision could have implications for letters of credit and demand guarantees.

Recent news reports have suggested that the European Union Parliament will likely retain treatment of certain trade finance instruments at a credit conversion factor (CCF) of 20% instead of increasing it to 50%, but trade finance specialists tracking the ongoing proceedings have said that the EU banking community needs to remain extremely cautious.

With the expanding use of economic sanctions within and across jurisdictions, lawyers have to consider not just the wording of the relevant economic sanctions but also how regulators will interpret whether certain activity is compliant or not and how courts will reach conclusions.

In the latest of its ongoing series of technical advisory briefings released on 27 June 2022, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Banking Commission addressed the subject of ‘Reducing Discrepancy Rates under Documentary Credits’ (TAB-3).