The January - March 2007 Issue contains the following articles:

·                     Trade Services 2006 In Review LCM speaks with RBC’s Allen Barabas, Nordea’s Kim Christensen, ADCB’s Zahoor N. Dattu, KBC’s Herwig Huysmans, The Bank of New York’s Michael C. McDonough, JP Morgan’s Michael F. Quinn, and ING’s Hugo Verschoren about the most important events affecting the trade-services industry in 2006 and expectations for 2007.

·                     From Four Month To Same Day Approval…
IFC Program Makes A World Of Difference Jacob Katsman looks at the history of the International Finance Corporation Global Trade Finance Program highlighting the program’s benefits for importers, issuing banks, confirming banks, and exporters.

·                     The 20% Solution Can you afford to let your employees spend a day a week away from their primary jobs? Jeff Dennis says you can’t afford not to.

·                     Discrepancies Exposed – Two LC Traps Kim Christensen presents two cases where there are ‘mismatches’ in the LCs that are almost invisible to non-LC-experts, but pose real risks that documents will be refused, resulting in late payment or no payment at all.

·                     Confusion From Sub-Article 30 (c) Of UCP 600 T.O. Lee compares sub-article 30 (c) of UCP 600 with its predecessor sub-article 39 (c) of UCP 500, pointing out an area of confusion and suggesting an amendment to the newly published UCP 600.

·                     Lost In The LC World Remembering Ravi Mehta, Ph.D, 1945-2007.

The April - June 2007 Issue contains the following articles:

·                     New Risk Management Techniques Under Basel II GarantiBank’s Erhan Zeyneloglu shares his experience with Basel II compliance giving insights into new risk management techniques.

·                     Third Year GTC Is Voted Best Independent Trade Platform/System Provider For the third year GlobalTrade Corporation (GTC) has won Euromoney’s Trade Finance Magazine Best Independent Trade Platform/System Provider AWARD for its @GlobalTrade Platform.

·                     Securing Creditor’s Interests Under International Commodities Trade /Finance Transaction In Ukraine Oleg Alyoshin presents a current and practical analysis of the possibilities for securing creditors of commodities under Ukrainian law. A must read for banks and corporates doing business in Ukraine.

·                     Discrepancies Exposed In this edition of Discrepancies Exposed, LCM’s Kim Christensen presents three examples of banking practice that - in his view - should be discouraged.

·                     Recognition In New York Of A Foreign Court’s Injunction Against Honour Robert M. Rosenblith reviews two decisions on the effect of a foreign court’s injunction against honour on claims of wrongful dishonour brought under the New Uniform Commercial Code.

·                     UCP 600: Five Minutes To Implementation Kim Christensen brings examples of questions asked by bankers and corporates related to UCP600 text urging ICC to provide quick and clear answers.

The July - September 2007 Issue contains the following articles:

·                     SwiftNet TSU: Where Is The Money? Jacob Katsman reports from SIBOS on the latest TSU developments with case studies from Dillard Store Services and Ito-Yokado.

·                     Doc. Credit Clinic 2007 / 1 Vincent O’Brien tackles some queries sent in to LC Monitor on UCP 600.

·                     Courts Defend Independence Of Demand Guarantees The last five years have seen a succession of cases where the courts have addressed, by ruling in favour of the applicant for a demand guarantee issued in an international trade transaction, the difficult area of unjust and/or fraudulent calling by the trader beneficiary. It was only a matter of time before the courts would be asked to look at the conduct of bankers themselves in drawing upon such instruments. Robert M Parson looks at the result of a recent decision that highlights important issues for traders and bankers alike.

·                     The Unfair Yes-Voteed Kim Christensen uncovers major problems with UCP600 arguing that an unonimous vote in favor of the new rules for documentary credits was a mistake.

·                     Terms Like ‘Negotiation,’ ‘Purchase,’ ‘Advancing Funds,’ ‘Agreeing To Advance Funds,’ And ‘Prepay’ Are Used In UCP 600 Articles. What Do They Really Mean? T.O. Lee examines the meaning of ‘Negotiation,’ ‘Purchase,’ ‘Advancing Funds,’ ‘Agreeing To Advance Funds,’ and ‘Prepay’ used in UCP 600 articles.

·                     What The TSU Is Not David Hennah of SWIFT answers some crucial questions on the introduction and application of the TSU.Kim Christensen brings examples of questions asked by bankers and corporates related to UCP600 text urging ICC to provide quick and clear answers.

·                     Discrepancies Exposed In this edition of Discrepancies Exposed, LCMs Kim Christensen presents three cases linked in some way to the new version of the UCP – the UCP 600.

The October - December 2007 Issue contains the following articles:

·                     Multi-Bank Scoring For Corporates Nick Pachnev looks at the present and future of multi-bank corporate connectivity.

·                     Doc. Credit Clinic 2007 / 2 Vincent O’Brien tackles some queries sent in to LC Monitor on UCP 600.

·                     Discrepancies Exposed In this edition of Discrepancies Exposed, LCM’s Kim Christensen takes apart wording of a complicated LC issued by a bank in Pakistan; showing a simpler way how the same LC could have been worded.

·                     The Pitfalls Of Imprecision Robert M. Rosenblith examines Buchbinder v. Natanzon showing the consequence of imprecise drafting of amendment advice and J.P. Morgan Trust Company, N.A. v. U.S. Bank, N.A., illustrating the necessity for the beneficiary to clearly understand what it will need to do in order to demand honor under an LC.

·                     Shell Implementing Speranza Command Center For Bank Relationship Management? Jacob Katsman reports on new technology that will soon be helping Shell Oil manage more than 2500 accounts with more than 100 spread over 120 countries and 86 currencies.

·                     Anomalies In UCP 600 Articles T.O. Lee has been actively involved in the drafting of UCP 600 as a member of the Consulting Group. He points out the anomalies in UCP 600 articles that may lead to disputes amongst bankers, traders, carriers, and insurers. The reasons are many: words used in the articles are not user-friendly; with unclear, imprecise or misleading statements; opinions from non-bankers are blocked and never reach the Drafting Group; votings by ICC National Committees on different sub-articles may be inconsistent.