Modified Photo by Tom Phung / licensed under CC BY 2.0

essDOCS VP Asia Pacific and Head of Metals, Bevan Davies, recently participated in a roundtable discussion hosted by Norton Rose Fulbright in Singapore, titled ‘Letters of Indemnity and discharge of cargo without original Bills of Lading: Problems and Solutions’.

Part of Norton Rose Fulbright’s Commodities, Mining and Transport Seminar Series, the session featured an assessment of recent trends in shipping, particularly relating to increased instances of fraud and jurisdictional challenges.

The discussion provided insights into the effects of ongoing volatility in the commodities markets, as well as recent paper-fraud cases, which according to industry sources, have led to a significant increase in the use of LOIs as a result of misdelivery and fraudulent Bills of Lading.

Joined by a panel of industry experts including Norton Rose Fulbright Partner, Hazel Brasington, and Of Counsel, Dan Perera, as well as a representative of a major commodities trading house, Bevan outlined how electronic Bills of Lading can mitigate these risks and offer a real solution to the current issues at hand.

Since original electronic Bills of lading are the functional and legal equivalents to their paper counterparts – replicating the existing attributes of paper B/Ls in an electronic world – the fact that eB/Ls are transferred at a much faster rate than the cargo to which they relate clearly leads to a substantial reduction, or even outright elimination, of the need for discharge or trading Letters of Indemnity and all the risks they entail.

Furthermore, since CargoDocs electronic Bills of Lading come with all relevant P&I approvals, carriers will always remain within the terms of their P&I cover when using the solution.