Exporters may suffer as NCBs officials not properly trained on UCP-600

FE Team | Published: June 28, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Jasim Uddin Haroon
Key officials of the nationalised commercial banks (NCBs) have not received dedicated training on the revisions brought to the Uniform Customs and Practices for Documentary Credits (UCP), which is to be introduced globally from July 1.
Private bank officials, on the other hand, have already been trained with the new version of UCP-600 through in-house trainings and workshops over the past six months.
The UCP rules, a set of guidelines formulated by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), are regularly reviewed and updated to ensure that banking and trade practices are uniformly exercised all over the world.
The first UCP was introduced in 1933 and its fifth version took place since 1993. The ICC amended it following high number of dispute rate under the UCP-500 and to expedite the international trade payment.
The businessmen especially the exporters might not receive their payments and the NCBs, which handle major share of foreign trade, also might suffer following insufficient knowledge of their officials, sources expressed the fear.
Deputy Managing Director of Sonali Bank Raihana Aneesa Yusuf Ali told the FE that they had not trained their officials for UCP-600.
"We did not conduct in house trainings for the new international payment procedures but some of our head office officials attended workshops conducted by ICC," Sonali Bank DMD added.
She also added, "I think the new concept should be familiarised to the officials and we should do it exclusively".
Sources at the banks said it has 43 authorised dealer (AD) branches across the country and needs at least 43 officials to be trained with the new international payment method.
Sources at state-owned Janata Bank said they will also train their officials shortly.
Janata Bank has 54 AD branches in the country and it might start intensive programmes from first week of July.
The Bangladesh Bank Tuesday issued a circular asking the NCBs and private commercial banks to comply with the new system in the international payment from July 1.
Kohinoor Alam, deputy general manager of Janata Bank told the FE that some officials from its head office received training provided by the Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM) and International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).
"We may start our own training session from first week of July but the date and time table are yet to finalised," Alam who is also director of Janata Bank Training Institute added.