New Form of International Settlements – Bank Payment Obligation

Open account and letter of credit are the most often used forms of payment in international trade. The first one is simple and cost efficient, but without payment assurance for the seller, the second one is secured, but is also perceived as costly, complicated and using outdated processes, based on presentation and examination of paper documents. This paper presents the new form of international settlements – Bank Payment Obligation, BPO, which combine advantages of both aboved mentioned payment forms – security, speed and convenience, and foster dematerialisation of commercial documents. The purpose of this paper is to present BPO – definition, realization of payment and conditions of introduction. The main feature of BPO is irrevocable undertaking of buyer’s bank (obligor bank) given to seller’s bank (recipient bank) to pay a specified amount following submission of required electronic data, which are automatically matching via transaction matching application. The paper presents also the analysis of the ICC Uniform Rules for Bank Payment Obligations – URBPO, published by International Chamber of Commerce in 2013.