Part I Legal and Practical Challenges to Traditional Trade Finance, 1 The UCP Regime: Past, Present, and Future

This chapter considers the history of the letter of credit and the Uniform Customs & Practice for Documentary Credits (‘UCP’) regime leading up to the adoption of the UCP 600. After examining the respective advantages and disadvantages of the UCP regime, the chapter examines the likelihood of a new UCP revision in terms of its likely costs and benefits. Concluding that there may be more proportionate ways of updating the legal framework other than a full-blown UCP revision, the chapter makes suggestions for change to the UCP 600 to strengthen the role played by international standard banking practice and to make it more accessible to non-bankers, with a focus on letter of credit practice, rather than letter of credit law.

TỶ LỆ LÃI SUẤT TRONG HỢP ĐỒNG VAY TIỀN THEO QUY ĐỊNH CỦA PHÁP LUẬT DÂN SỰ VIỆT NAM QUA CÁC THỜI KỲ TRONG MỐI LIÊN HỆ VỚI PHÁP LUẬT TÍN DỤNG

Interest rates are a financial tool to ensure the rights of lenders in loan contracts. Accordingly, the borrower is obliged to pay interest if so agreed or provided by law. Through the amendments of the Civil Code, interest rates are an item that has had many changes compared to other provisions in loan agreements. However, the interest rates prescribed in the current Civil Code still cause different interpretations, especially in relation to credit laws. This leads to inconsistent application of the law, especially when dealing with credit contract disputes. Therefore, based on the study of interest rate regulations on loan contracts under the laws of Vietnam over time, we analyze some problems about interest rates and credit law under the current Civil Code and make some specific recommendations to solve the problems.

The fraud rule under letter of credit law in the people’s republic of China and implications for Vietnam

In international trade where the buyer and the seller do not have information about each other, letter of credit is used to assure the other parties' fears in the sale contract. For instance, the sellers are afraid of not being paid after sending the goods bought by the purchasers, meanwhile, the buyers have no reasonable grounds to believe the sellers will send the conforming goods under the requirements of the sale contracts. The letter of credit is a settlement between parties to reduce the risks and inserts security into the international sale of goods. However, there are fraudsters who tries to defraud the process of the letter of credit and fraud rule is expected to prevent this issue. There are countries tried to develop specific regulations for the letter of credit and fraud rule, one of those countries is the People's Republic of China (P.R.C). The practices of letter of credit in China had been an aiming point of critiques through years by letter of credit experts. In such wise, the Supreme People's Court of P.R.C has issued the Rules of the Supreme People's Court Concerning Several Issues in Hearing Letter of Credit Case (``the 2005 Rules'') in an effort to partly solve the problems. This paper will give a brief introduction about the letter of credit's operation, the law regulating the letter of credit in international trade as well as illustrate the specify law for the fraud rule in letter of credit law in P.R.C by emphasizing the history and summarizing the structure of the fraud rule. Thenceforward, the author will evaluate the case study in Vietnam to show the situation of Vietnam in these days and giving recommendations.

Syndicated lending: Law enforcement and legislation improvement

Subject. This article deals with the issues related to the development of the syndicated lending institution in the aspect of the emerging legal framework in this area. Objectives. The article aims to consider the problems of the development of syndicated lending in Russia and describe the main areas for further changes in the legal regulation. Methods. For the study, I used logical and structural analyses, and functional analysis system and legalistic approaches. Results. The article describes the essence, features and legal regulation of syndicated lending, and evaluates enforcement practices based on the new syndicated credit law. It also formulates key issues and identifies further areas for changing the legal regulation of syndicated lending. Conclusions. The development of syndicated lending can significantly support large and medium-sized businesses in terms of job preservation, tax revenue growth, and improving business competitiveness. The results of the study can be used both in theory of syndicated lending in the Russian Federation, and in practical activities to develop proposals to improve regulation in this area.

Independence principle and its exception in letter of credit law: Suggestions for Vietnam

Even though the letter of credit was invented from a long time ago, however, its legal personalities are very new to the Vietnam Legal Framework. The International Chamber of Commerce (``ICC'') has issued principles for the documentary credit which is the Uniform of Customs and Practice (``UCP'') since 1933 and kept updating it until now, the latest version of UCP is UCP 600 which is presented in 2007. However, the UCP has not systematized many aspects of documentary credit yet and ICC considered those problems as subjects of domestic regulations. The diversification in different national laws leads to confusion thus causing many problems to merchants in international trade. Some countries do not have specified codifications to regulate the letter of credit so these countries treat UCP as ``quasi-law'' while other countries have their own legal framework for letter of credit law and even have fraud rules included. It is quite interesting that the United States which is a common law country is the first country to embody the operation of letter of credit in the Uniform of Commercial Code (``UCC'') and regulates the fraud rule within the same Code. This paper will try to explain and compare the principle of independence in the UCP and UCC, clarify the definition and regulations of fraud rule in UCC and evaluate the legal regulations of Vietnam law for the independence principle in a letter of credit.

Macao's gaming credit practices: 15 years after the gaming credit law

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discuss the evolution of Macao's gaming credit practices with reference to its promulgation of the gaming credit law after its gaming liberalization.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative approach based on in-depth interviews with casino executives, government officials and gamblers to probe their perspectives on Macao's gaming credit practices was adopted due to its underresearched nature. Documentary analysis of annual reports and court files was also used.FindingsDespite the potential of increased revenue with more credit, the credit risk for gaming concessionaires remained under control, while VIP-rooms and junket operators have adopted more prudent policy and faced substantial challenge in credit collection. All these would lead to greater alignment with law-based credit practices.Research limitations/implicationsSince gaming credit information was considered confidential, the author experienced difficulty in arranging the interviews, and the nonprobability sampling characterized by the selection bias might affect the findings.Practical implicationsThe findings have demonstrated some major credit practices such as credit charges on credit balances and terms and conditions for repayment for different credit providers in Macao.Originality/valueThe different credit practices by credit providers at different levels of gaming credit have been presented in the same paper.

The average consumer is not a lawyer! Case C-66/19 JC v Kreissparkasse Saarlouis

The Court of Justice had to decide on the transparency of information on the right of withdrawal in consumer credit law. Under German law, the creditor could describe the start of the withdrawal period by mere reference to a legal provision which then referred to other legal provisions which the consumer then had to interpret, which the Court of Justice considered to be lacking in transparency. In the background, there was a conflict between the referring court and the German Federal Supreme Court on the legal competence of the average consumer that the Court of Justice decided in favour of the referring court.

UNCITRAL, security rights and the globalisation of the US Article 9

This article provides a critical analysis of the UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) proposals for developing – through its Legislative Guide (the Guide) – a 'liberal' global secured credit law regime that opens up the range of assets that can be used for securing loans and that limits formal procedures required for taking security interests. The article argues that UNCITRAL’s reliance on Article 9 of the US Uniform Commercial Code is problematic for various reasons. First, it neglects reference to indigenous secured credit law norms that also reflect national social policy choices in a range of countries. Second, it questions the idea that global 'liberal' secured credit law of the kind articulated in the Guide helps to achieve 'economic efficiency', since it relies on a narrow conception of private property. Moreover, by relying on existing property rights distributions, a liberal secured credit law can further entrench existing socio-economic disparities in a society. The article therefore casts doubt on the idea that UNCITRAL’s Legislative Guide is an example of a successful 'harmonized, modernized and marketized' secured credit law, and instead – in Polanyian terms – draws attention to its potential to further disembed markets in credit out of social relationships.