How Does It Work?

The Banking Commission meets twice a year, once in Paris, once in another location. Commission meetings consider drafts of the new UCP revision, draft Opinions concerning queries on ICC rules submitted by ICC national committees, reports from the Task Force on Guarantees and special reports on items such as electronic commerce and trade finance. Meetings are open to members nominated by ICC national committees and also to guests for one meeting only, after which they have to become members in order to attend.

Decisions taken at Banking Commission meetings are implemented in official ICC publications and reported in the ICC quarterly newsletter, Documentary Credits Insight. ICC banking rules, which are contractual and voluntary, are implemented worldwide. ICC rules on documentary credits, presently called UCP 500, are the most successful privately drafted rules for trade ever developed and are estimated to be the basis of trade transactions involving more than one trillion dollars a year.