Part II Trade Finance Technology, 9 The Electronic Bill of Exchange and Its Use in International Trade

This chapter explores the ‘electronification’ of bills of exchange in connection with their use as credit and payment instruments in international trade. The chapter observes that the infinite number of international trade participants spread throughout the globe at different stages of technological development militates against the feasibility of a common, universal, and worldwide technological platform for handling electronic bills of exchange. Instead, particularly by reference to the extensive experience in the US in relation to the ‘electronification’ of cheques, the chapter proposes that a robust and flexible legal frameworkbe implanted in the Bills of Exchange Act, and used as agreed, to cover electronic presentment of bills of exchange and the exchange and negotiation of substitute bills, bills images, and electronic bills.