A Comparison of International Standby Practices(98) with Uniform Customs for Practices for Documentary Credits

스탠드바이 신용장통일규칙(信用狀統一規則)(ISP98)과 화환신용장통일규칙(貨換信用狀統一規則)(UCP500)과의 비교연구(比較硏究)

Since January 1, 1999, traders, bankers and their counsels worldwide have available for their use the first set of rules exclusively dealing with standby letters of credit:the International Standby Practices(ISP98). Numerous standbys have alreadby been issued in the United States and worldwide subject to the new ISP. The international banking community is anticipating an increasing demand from their customers to issue ISP-governed undertakings. Before the adoption of ISP, traders and bankers had only the choice of issuing their standby subject to the International Chamber of Commerce's(ICC) Uniform Customs and Practices for Documentary Credits(UCP) and, to a much lesser extent, to the ICC's Uniform Rules for Demand Guarantees(URDG). However, practice showed that UCP rules are not easily adapted to regulate transnational standbys. Indeed, UCP was conceived to govern documentary credits, which are intended to serve as a means of payment. By contrast, standbys are means of guaranty. The core of UCP cannot therefore be appropriate for standby practices and, as a consequence, a number of UCP's provisions have to be excluded in the standby's text. UCP's shortcomings indicated above fulfil the requirements of a key factor for the success of uniform rules. Indeed, to achieve success in the sense of meeting the market's acceptance, any such rules should fill a widely recognized need expressed by merchant community to which such rules are addressed. The ISP cleary has such a vocation. Nonetheless, the already largely encumbered regulatory environment of guarantee devices can hardly go unnoticed. The question therefore arises as to the proper place of ISP in such a context.