URDG Seminar held in Dubai on 14 June 2010

The Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry which hosted the Spring 2009 meeting of the ICC Banking Commission ran a URDG 758 implementation workshop in Dubai on 14 June 2010 at the prestigious offices of the Dubai Chamber.

Vincent O’Brien, a member of the ICC Banking Commission Guarantee Task Force and moderator for the URDG workshop scheduled for 20 April in Beijing lead this important workshop timely scheduled in Dubai for mid June. O’Brien stated ‘This workshop is of tremendous importance to traders, bankers and corporate lawyers operating in the Gulf – the rules become effective on 1 July 2010 and all parties need to be ready.

The essential nature of this workshop has been underlined by the recently published report of the ICC Banking Commission “Rethinking Trade Finance 2010,” which surveyed trade bankers in 75 countries.

The report stated that ‘44% of respondents indicated that there was an increase in the number of claims under guarantees and standbys in 2009’. It is alarming to see that 23% of respondents reported an increase in the number of court injunctions stopping payment under bank undertakings.

According to O’Brien the need for strong and clear demand guarantee rules as in the URDG758 is clearly essential ‘particularly as the figure from the 2010 survey is almost double the figure reported in the 2009 Survey (12%)’. Knowledge of the rules and how to implement them were the key focus of the Dubai Chamber workshop on 14 June 2010.