By Nicholas Demetriou, Director, Growth, ICE Digital Trade

*This article originally appeared in Trade for Prosperity: Summer / Autumn 2025 – A Toolkit for 21st Century Trade (p.62-64) and is published with the kind permission of ICC United Kingdom.

Electronic bills of lading (eBLs) have been an industry ‘hot topic’ for over two decades, with solutions such as ICE CargoDocs in operational use for over 15 years…yet misconceptions around adopting eBLs continue to abound in the trade and trade finance space.

In this article, we explore 5 key misconceptions around eBL adoption, providing real-world examples and lessons we have learned. 

1. You need to start with fully ‘electronic’ BLs to reap the benefits of post-trade digitisation
Incorrect! Digitising just a BL will not provide a corporate or bank all the value they are seeking. With ICE CargoDocs, many of our customers start by digitally managing all their paper BL, Letter of Indemnity (LOI), and supporting document drafting, review, and approvals processes, and move to eBLs as an ‘add-on’ incrementally, as the broader eBL-enabled network expands.

For example, Baffinland Iron Mines – a Canadian high-grade iron ore mining company which is now 99% paperless across its export shipments – began its journey to digital trade exactly this way, benefiting from expedited and centralized documentation processes and improved visibility and auditability across its shipping and trade operations. Once it had completed its first eBL transaction in the 2nd half of 2023, the company quickly reached 50% eBL by the end of the same year, and 99% eBL by the end of 2024.

In short, real value can be delivered quickly, before you even get to the eBL.

2. eBLs are not secure
Cybersecurity is a legitimate concern for systems involving sensitive data. After all, in the case of BLs, they entitle their holder to take delivery of cargo worth millions of pounds. The irony is that paper BLs have set the bar on security very low: the industry still largely relies on a (unverified) handwritten signature, entrusted to couriers.

It is therefore hard to argue that a robust, encrypted eBL solution where only one eBL exists – backed by 2-factor authentication, audit logs and much more – is less secure than a paper BL.

3. I can’t use eBLs as they're not legally recognized
While it's true that legal frameworks for eBLs are still evolving, key jurisdictions have started to recognize them as legally equivalent to paper - most notably the UK’s Electronic Trade Documents Act (ETDA) 2023 and Singapore’s Electronic Transactions (Amendment) Act 2021. And while more countries adopt UNCITRAL’s Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR) or equivalent legislation, the ‘rulebook’ approach has allowed ICE Digital Trade to develop an eBL network that supports over 10,000 corporates and 60 banking groups in using eBLs across 82 countries, at scale.

4. Adopting eBLs only benefits large companies
SMEs are often concerned that adopting is too time-consuming and costly to justify ‘small upside’. At ICE Digital Trade we provide pay-as-you-go pricing plans for both corporates & banks, allowing you to start small, with minimal outlay and contractual commitment. In fact, accelerating digitisation makes trade finance more accessible, reducing the trade finance gap: one of the reasons trade finance is not always available is the period of time it takes for key documents, such as the BL, to reach the bank. Without the bill, the bank is unsecured, making borrowing much more expensive and often unviable. Digitisation removes this hurdle, improving security, reducing costs and making trade finance more accessible, particularly to SMEs.

5. Transitioning to eBLs is complex, whilst you might end up with little usage
While the transition does require effort, particularly in building out your counterparty network, let’s not forget that in certain trade routes, eBL penetration is very high!

Some notable examples include:

• Giga Shipping, a Malaysian automotive and vehicle logistics company, became the first ICE Digital Trade customer to operationally roll out ICE CargoDocs Local Law eBLs – leveraging the UK’s ETDA 2023 – to digitise the 10,000+ BLs it processes annually. By March 2025, the company reached 100% paperless across all its Ocean and House BLs within just 100 days from going-live.
• US agri houses and barge lines have digitised approximately 90% of the negotiable barge BLs used for southbound Mississippi River flows, via the CargoDocs-powered Barge Digital Transformation (BDT) Solution.
• BIMCO’s 25x25 pledge surpassed its initial target within its first year: in 2023, major metals / minerals producers and leading carriers pledged to digitise at least 25% of their annual seaborne trade volume using eBLs by 2025. It only took one year, however, for BHP, Rio Tinto, Vale and Anglo American to achieve an average rate of 25.1% paperless in their iron ore trade using ICE CagoDocs eBLs.

In short, with the right planning and support by your solution provider, you can always start small (see point 1 above) and incrementally expand to 100% paperless.

Closing Thoughts
The conversation around eBLs is no longer ‘if’, but ‘when’: we are gradually but tirelessly breaking down the misconceptions and finding innovative solutions to the challenges. Legal barriers are breaking down, the first steps towards truly interoperable eBL solutions have been made, and the industry is engaged in a way we have never seen before.

We as solution providers must now provide the essential change management required to carve a realistic ‘path’ to fully paperless, tackling one piece at a time. We are not the first industry that has had to digitise, but we are likely the last left to digitise – let’s not leave this topic on the agenda for the next generation of trade and trade finance professionals.