A. General Information
World’s first digital trade financing pilot between MLETR harmonised jurisdictions
and the Financial Services Regulatory Authority
(FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM)
B. Lessons Learned
This pilot project aims to facilitate the transfer of electronic documents between jurisdictions that have adopted the UNCITRAL MLETR and to harmonize the legal recognition of digital documents, such as electronic bills of lading in the jurisdictions of Singapore and Abu Dhabi.
IMDA, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), in collaboration with commercial partners, DBS Bank, Emirates NBD and Standard Chartered, have successfully concluded the world’s first cross-border digital trade financing pilot of its kind. The pilot announced in November 2021 used IMDA’s TradeTrust framework to facilitate the transfer of electronic records between jurisdictions that have adopted the UNCITRAL MLETR. This harmonizes the legal recognition of digital documents such as eBLs across both jurisdictions and complements the larger global trade movement by the G7 economies on adopting electronic transferable records in international trade.
Transferable documents: Trade documents that entitle the holder to claim the performance
of an obligation or ownership (e.g. bills of lading, bills of exchange, etc.). In 2017, The UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR) was introduced to enable legal use of transferable electronic records (ETRs) that are functionally equivalent to transferable documents. The ETRs would need to satisfy the requirements of singularity, exclusive control and integrity. Blockchain technology can be used in the implementation of ETRs. For example, the ERC721 provides a smart contract API used for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that supports transfers of ownership whilst being able to provide satisfaction of key functional requirements of the MLETR.
Electronic Bill of Lading, and others.