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Redesigning the Bill of Lading
Lloyd's of London Press |
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Redesigning the Bill of Lading
Lloyd's of London Press |
In documentary credit operations, bankers tend only to be interested in the part that concerns them, just as the shipping companies and underwriters are interested mainly in the details that relate to their own business. As a consultant in documentary credit with general involvement in banking, transport, maritime chartering, multimodal transport, cargo insurance and related subjects, I am often faced with discrepancies in credits that are the direct result of this lack of collaboration among the relevant parties.
If you look at the bills of lading (Bs/L) from different shipping companies, you may be amazed to discover that there are more than two dozen versions - all different. Even the name of the documents cannot be unified; it could be a liner, Marine/Ocean, Port-to-Port, Negotiable, Non-negotiable, Straight, Shipped, Direct, Combined Transport, Short Form, Blank Back, Through, Master, House, Charter Party, Option, Memo Bill, Switched, FIATA Multimodal Transport Bill of Lading etc. Hence, under the new UCP 500 rules that come into effect on 1 January, 1994, banks will accept bills of lading "however named" to yield to this chaos.
Unfortunately, the UCP 500 is not going to be so relaxed over other differences.
The UCP 500 now requires that ...
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