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This paper aims to address issues of law and policy, the potential pitfalls such as fraud, conflict of law and documents discrepancies that are often encountered by the parties in usage and practice of the Letter of Credit (LC). The article has gleaned other forms of payment mechanisms in international commercial trade to demonstrate that despite the upsurge in international payment instruments, the LC has remained a viable commercial product. This article aims to provide an in-depth analysis of the law governing the LC and why it has remained resilient and a viable commercial product for many years.

The author has utilized the current version of UCP 600 (2007) and the legislation such as Brussels Convention (2000) in Europe, litigated cases and secondary data sources in writing the paper. The data generated were then evaluated taking into account the most recent legal and policy changes regarding the usage and practice of the LC in international commercial transactions. The paper straddles many issues but evaluated in a distinctive way to underscore the purpose for writing it.

The findings of the paper have demonstrated that despite a myriad of payment mechanisms as a result of innovation in international trade, the LC is still a viable commercial product. Parties will need to be knowledgeable and skilled enough to keep abreast of dynamic changes on law and policy relating to usage and practice of LCs. Short of that parties could be vulnerable to risk exigencies inherent in international trade they sought to eliminate by subscribing to the LC.

The limitations lie in realm that the paper was largely library-based and the author did not carry out extensive corroborative research studies on issues it was written on. Thus, any future work on the LC will try to corroborate issues of policy and practice and how they are internalized in commercial practice.

The paper has articulated the governing law of the LC and the context in which it is harnessed in commercial practice. It has articulated potential risk areas that the parties ought to watch out for before and during the process of harnessing the LC as a payment mechanism. The paper has demonstrated that risks inherent in international trade are now higher than in past decades because of globalization and its attendant fluid environment. The paper is relevant to banks, regulators, governments and also students because it internalizes most recent changes in the usage and practice of the LCs in international trade.

International trade affects local businesses, banks, ordinary people, national governments and it has far reaching implications for societies as whole. The LC is utilized to mitigate, if not eliminate, potential risks in international trade transactions, and it has far reaching social implications for economies to be overlooked.

The article has gleaned other forms of payment mechanisms in international commercial trade to tease out that despite the upsurge in international payment mechanisms, the LC has remained a viable commercial product. This article is a MUST read because it internalizes recent changes in the usage and practice of documentary credit which have not been addressed in its context. Even though the article has been undertaken by analysis of secondary and primary data sources, the author has done so in a distinctive way to underscore the most recent changes to the usage and practice of the LC and the purpose it was written.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the current legal framework for payment system in international Islamic trade finance vis‐à‐vis the new regime introduced by the Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits (UCP) 600 as well as the Sharī'ah Standard on Documentary Credits issued by the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) and Sharī'ah Resolutions of selected Sharī'ah Boards of Islamic financial institutions.

A partial comparison of both the UCP 600 and the Sharī'ah framework for documentary credit is given through the content analysis of relevant sources.

The AAOIFI Sharī'ah Standard on Documentary Credits, as well as other applicable Sharī'ah resolutions of Islamic financial institutions, does provide a good framework for a Sharī'ah‐compliant documentary credit system, which is unique to trade in Islamic finance products, but there is scope for further improvement, taking into consideration the two possibilities proposed in the available literature on the subject – harmonization or bifurcation of rules. The UCP 600 also allows for the exclusion or modification of the rules to suit the specific needs of the Islamic finance industry.

This study focuses only on UCP 600 and the Sharī'ah framework on Documentary Credits, though bearing mind that there are other frameworks for documentary credit systems such as the International Standby Practices (ISP98) and letters of credit issued under Article 5 of the New York Uniform Commercial Code.

Islamic financial institutions should implement the provisions of the AAOIFI Sharī'ah standard on documentary credits but may require a different framework for international trade financing involving both Islamic banks and conventional banks.

Though few studies have been conducted on Sharī'ah issues regarding the application of the documentary credits, this seems to be the first time where a more proactive step is taken to propose two different frameworks for transactions involving Sharī'ah compliant financing.

The significant economic weight of the Eurozone in the globe caused the contagion of the Eurozone debt crisis on the emerging markets. The Eurozone debt crisis caused the sudden plummeting of the cross-border bank credit (BC) to India causing a significant impact on bank lending in India. Essentially, the purpose of this study is to find an answer to the question: Did the decline in cross-border cross-credit from Eurozone had an impact on domestic BC in India?

Using the data for the period from 2000 to 2013 sourced from Bank for International Settlements international banking statistics consolidated data sets, the novel specification of the study captures the impact of Eurozone cross-border credit on India by developing two regression frameworks that capture the pre-Euro debt crisis period scenario and post-Euro debt crisis period scenario.

The results offer a very interesting analogy of the behavior of BC and cross-border credit during the pre and post-Eurozone crisis scenarios of analysis. During the pre-Eurozone crisis period, cross-border credit displayed a significant negative relationship with BC indicating that cross-border credit to the Indian firms indirectly benefitted the banks by creating increased demand for domestic BC. The post-Eurozone crisis period witnessed a nexus between cross-border credit and BC during the pre-Eurozone crisis period, which gradually disappeared largely because of the onset of the Eurozone crisis.

This study is a first of its kind in investigating the impact of the Eurozone crisis on an emerging economy like India. This study supports the hypothesis of the existence of the transmission of financial shocks through the balance sheets of international banks. The findings conform to the policy concerns of most of the emerging economies that international banks transmit financial shocks from their home countries. The implication for India and other emerging economies is that international credit growth deserves careful monitoring.

One important issue international firms must face involves the evaluation and control of credit risk. Many studies dealing with international credit management have focused on the practices used by multinational enterprises. In this study we take a different approach to this topic by analyzing the credit management decisions made by 188 U.S. foreign subsidiaries. We examine many aspects of the foreign subsidiary manager's credit policies including credit standards, credit terms, collection efforts and customer creditworthiness. The results of this study indicate that credit management practices of foreign subsidiaries are similar to those used by parent companies. In addition, the findings show that foreign managers generally use theoretically‐preferred methods when making credit decisions.

This study is a comparative analysis of the magnitude of economic growth as a key determinant of long-term foreign currency sovereign credit ratings in 30 countries in Africa, Europe, Asia and Latin America from 2010 to 2018.

The analysis applies the fixed effects (FE) and random effects (RE) panel least squares (PLS) models.

The authors find that the magnitude economic coefficients are marginally small for African countries compared to other developing countries in Asia, Europe and Latin America. Results of the probit and logit binary estimation models show positive coefficients for economic growth sub-factors for non-African countries (developing and developed) compared to negative coefficients for African countries.

These findings mean that, an increase in economic growth in Africa does not significantly increase the likelihood that sovereign credit ratings will be upgraded. This implies that there is lack of uniformity in the application of the economic growth determinant despite the claims of a consistent framework by rating agencies. Thus, macroeconomic factors are relatively less important in determining country's risk profile in Africa than in other developing and developed countries.

First, studies that investigate the accuracy of sovereign credit rating indicators and risk factors in Africa are rare. This study is a key literature at the time when the majority of African countries are exploring the window of sovereign bonds as an alternative funding model to the traditional concessionary borrowings from multilateral institutions. On the other hand, the persistent poor rating is driving the cost of sovereign bonds to unreasonably high levels, invariably threatening their hopes of diversifying funding options. Second, there is criticism that the rating assessments of the credit rating agencies are biased in favour of developed countries and there is a gap in literature on studies that explore the whether the credit rating agencies are biased against African countries. This paper thus explores the rationale behind the African Union Decision Assembly/AU/Dec.631 (XXVIII) adopted by the 28th Ordinary Session of the African Union held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in January 2017 (African Union, 2017), directing its specialized governance agency, the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), to provide support to its Member States in the field of international credit rating agencies. The Assembly of African Heads of State and Government highlight that African countries are facing the challenges of credit downgrades despite an average positive economic growth. Lastly, the paper makes contribution to the argument that the majority of African countries are unfairly rated by international credit rating agencies, raising a discussion of the possibility of establishing a Pan-African credit rating institution.

Provides insight into the credit offerings of manufacturers via an analysis of data which are unique in several ways. Focuses specifically on the dimensions of the credit package supplied to customers for consumer and industrial goods in both domestic and export markets in the USA and the UK. Offers an analytical model for use in improving credit policy. Concludes first that, bi‐nationally, consumer goods firms tend to be more generous than industrial goods sellers, except in the matter of maximum credit duration; and second, that UK firms are more generous than their US counterparts in export markets.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and examine, in a systematic manner, possible preventive measures that commercial parties can take in order to prevent or reduce documentary letter of credit (L/C) fraud in international transactions.

In the context of international transactions, considering documentary L/C fraud as a risk, the paper searched preventive measures that different parties involved can adopt, from both business perspective and legal perspective.

The paper provides a number of specific measures which buyers, sellers, and banks in international L/C transactions can take in business to reduce L/C fraud. The option of banks providing additional services of checking further the validity or authenticity of some documents under the L/C, by charging additional prices, has reflected the needs of some business parties. However, this is proposed to be optional rather than compulsory for banks. The lawyers can also play an important role by adopting preventive legal mentality to help and provide advice to different parties in applying the preventive and proactive approach. More importantly, the author recommends that buyers or sellers maintain close cooperation with their banks and lawyers in implementing preventive and proactive measures.

The paper can be a helpful source of advice for business enterprises likely to be involved in international documentary L/C transactions.

This paper fulfils the gap of a holistic study on how to prevent international documentary letter of credit fraud.

Investigates the main dimensions and attributes that Greek cardholders consider of importance when selecting a card. Reviews the Greek credit and charge card market characteristics, competitive environment and cardholders′ profiles in relation to the main literature on credit cards. Investigates a representative quota sample of Greek cardholders – taking into account demographic factors such as age, sex and income – on the relative importance of the main attributes that play a role in card selection. The data collected are analysed by factor analysis, which suggests that there are five main factors that affect card selection: convenience of use in Greece; security (safety); economy; prestige; and shopping abroad. The weightings and relative importance of each of these factors was calculated, and this could be used for more optimal marketing mix allocations. Suggests that Greek cardholders are more “practical” and less “prestige” oriented than previously thought. Consequently, more emphasis should be given to convenience, security (against fraud/loss) and economy aspects of credit card usage, by appropriate advertising, promotions, product development and distribution allocations by banks and credit card issuers.

The Great Leveraging was an episode of rapid credit growth and booming housing markets leading up to the global financial crisis. It is important to identify the key drivers of the Great Leveraging and, to this end, the purpose of this paper is to model the relationship between domestic credit and net foreign liabilities in the EU countries most affected by the crisis.

The analyses show that domestic credit and net foreign liabilities were cointegrated one-to-one for Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain, while there was no cointegration for Ireland. Estimation of vector error correction models (VECMs) shows that the adjustment to deviations from the cointegrating relationship took place through changes in domestic credit for Greece and Italy, while the adjustment was bidirectional for Spain and maybe also for Portugal.

These results suggest that external factors in the form of foreign capital inflows were important drivers of the pre-crisis leveraging in the southern crisis countries, although to varying degrees across the countries.

Key novelties include the use of stock variables instead of flow variables and the estimation of VECMs for the countries individually instead of in a panel.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the opportunities and challenges for “foreign” financial institutions who wish to enter the Chinese market. It uses the credit card product to illustrate the complexities of this market.

Building on a literature review of how other transitional economies have dealt with the introduction of competitive financial services into their markets, the paper uses secondary research sources to consider some of the Chinese cultural nuances about savings and consumption that foreign entrants will need to be aware of. The credit card provides a mechanism, both to better explain these nuances and to demonstrate the entry strategies used to date by foreign credit card issuers.

There is much work yet to be done by the Chinese authorities to establish an infrastructure for payment cards and to encourage consumers to hold and use such cards. Foreign entrants, whilst constrained by the regulations restricting entry into the Chinese financial services markets, need also to be aware of some of the cultural impediments to the use of payment cards, particularly credit cards.

Further empirical research now needs to be conducted to explore the attitudes of Chinese consumers towards using credit cards and the willingness of Chinese merchants to accept such cards for payment. Foreign entrants, both actual and prospective need to be aware of the unique culture of China and how concepts such as Guanxi will impact upon the success of their entry strategies into this market.

The paper adds to the very limited literature on financial services in China and has value in that it encourages bank marketers to understand the cultural environment of the market that they are trying to penetrate.