Modified Photo by Muhammad Rasyid Prabowo / licensed under CC BY 2.0

By Alexander Goulandris, Chief Executive Officer, essDOCS

*This article originally appeared on LinkedIn.

The ICC Banking Commission at its recent annual meeting in Jakarta took several major steps in leading the ongoing transformation to paperless trade.

The Commission formally launched its new Work Group on Digitization, which will focus on three streams:

1. to evaluate ICC rules and guidelines to ensure they are "e" compliant. i.e. enabling banks to accept data vs. documents;
2. to conduct a legal review of enforceability of digital vs. paper bills of lading, that banks use as security for trade finance transactions; and
3. to develop a set of minimum standards to enable digital connectivity, focused on legal, liability, information security and technology.
    

This critical work should significantly assist banks and corporates to accelerate the ongoing move to paperless trade.