ITFA supports Paris Europlace in its new mission to accelerate digitization of international trade operations

Launch of a programme assigned to Paris Europlace to accelerate the digitization of international trade finance operations

The UNCITRAL Model Law for Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR) has been making waves in France too. Recognising the need to accelerate the digitization of international trade finance operations, the French government announced the launch of a new MLETR-centric programme assigned to Paris Europlace.

The French Government wants to encourage businesses active in importing and exporting, and their financers to move towards the digitization of international trade finance procedures. This digitization would be consistent with the initiatives recently undertaken at the UN (MLETR) and the G7 to promote paperless procedures and the use of transferable electronic documents.

Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty said: “The digitization of international trade finance procedures could be a major driver of simplification, which would benefit the competitiveness of our businesses, and in particular our SMEs. It will also make the Paris marketplace a global trade finance hub.”

Éric Dupond-Moretti, Keeper of the Seals, Minister of Justice added: “Law is a tool to be used to follow the major economic shifts linked to digital technology and more generally to strengthen the attractiveness of the Paris marketplace. The programme assigned to the Paris Europlace working group will be significant in evaluating the opportunity to modify the legal texts governing international trade activities, consistent with the recommendations made by the UN Model Law.” – discover the full PR here.

This is a major milestone for the Paris Europlace MLETR working group which was established in Q1 2022 under leadership of Philippe Henry and Béatrice Collot. The working group is supported by ITFA’s Fintech Committee members as part of the DNI Initiative which produced the dDOC specifications to achieve full interoperability of e-originals and negotiable instruments.