Since going fully online in May 2024, DCW has seen significant growth. The addition of eBooks, CPDs, an expanded archive, and a growing global editorial board has driven increased readership and engagement across our international community of practitioners.
But which articles, cases, and resources captured the most attention in 2025? Here’s a look at what DCW readers spent the most time with this year.
This article offers a timely, data-driven look at the continued role of standby LCs amid regulatory change and capital pressure. By drawing on ICC Trade Register data, Basel developments, and the growing global adoption of ISP98, perhaps it appeals to practitioners looking for a clear, practical explanation of why SBLCs remain widely used and operationally relevant in today’s trade environment.
Returning to one of the most stubborn realities of LC practice, this piece examines why discrepancy rates remain high despite the introduction of UCP 600 in 2007. Rather than treating refusals as an unavoidable feature of documentary credits, it explores where responsibility truly lies across drafting, training, and examination practice.
This comparative analysis sustained attention as jurisdictions continued to move ahead with electronic trade documentation this year. By placing MLETR alongside the 2022 UCC Amendments, it clarified where the frameworks align and where their differences matter for financing, control, and cross-border certainty, particularly around negotiability and governing law.
Auto-extension language continues to present significant long-term exposure for issuers. Examining the Illinois DNR v. Regions Bank decision, the piece illustrates how courts scrutinize the exact wording of extension clauses and why assumptions about duration or regulatory backstops offer little protection. Small drafting choices, especially concerning final expiry, can leave standbys exposed decades later.
This two-part series examined six significant LC decisions arising from trader collapses and complex commodity structures, many centered on Singapore. Read together, the cases probed the limits of the fraud exception, the treatment of payment letters of indemnity, and how far courts will look beyond facially compliant documents. The articles resonated for the way they placed these rulings in context, showing where LC autonomy remains firm and where recent decisions may be reshaping expectations for banks, traders, and beneficiaries.
This U.S. decision drew significant attention for how firmly the court rejected attempts to extend advising bank liability. Emphasizing the absence of a special relationship, the effect of standard disclaimers, and the limits of reasonable reliance, the ruling reaffirmed where courts continue to draw the line between LC advice and assumed risk, even in transactions later exposed as fraudulent. Page views: 1,216
This Hong Kong ruling reinforced that a negotiating bank’s claim under a UCP600 undertaking stands on its own, even where parallel fraud proceedings and injunctions are unfolding elsewhere. For issuers, it serves as a reminder that forum strategy and interim orders in an applicant’s home jurisdiction may not insulate them from reimbursement claims in established LC venues once documents have been accepted and negotiation has occurred. Page views: 1,162
Here, the Singapore appellate court maintained that on-demand bonds remain payable absent clear bad faith, even where the underlying project is disputed and arbitration is ongoing. For issuers, the decision reinforces the reliability of bond autonomy and the limited circumstances in which courts will interfere with payment, particularly where auto-extension clauses and back-charges are in play. Page views: 1,056
DCW’s coverage of the ICC Banking Commission Annual Meeting brought readers into the room in Dubai for the key takeaways from this major industry gathering. The executive summary distilled what mattered most to banks: how ICC is positioning itself on digitisation, data standards, bills of lading, capital treatment, and the continuing role of LCs in a shifting trade landscape.
This book addresses one of the most challenging aspects of modern trade finance: translating layered AML, sanctions, fraud, and due-diligence obligations into workable processes. By starting with how trade actually functions, it builds a practical framework for identifying risk, applying controls, and meeting regulatory expectations without losing sight of commercial reality.
ISP98 Model Form 1 stood out for its clear, self-contained structure and close alignment with ISP98, including an annexed model demand form that can also function as a standalone precedent. Together with the full suite of ISP98 Model Forms, made available online as fillable drafting templates in May 2025, the collection has attracted more than 9,000 views, reflecting strong practitioner demand for practical, standardized standby drafting.
Accessed 2,899 Times
That wraps up DCW’s 2025 Readers’ Picks. Thank you for being part of our global community. We have much more planned for 2026 and look forward to continuing the conversation in the year ahead. From all of us at DCW, we wish you happy holidays and very Happy New Year!
Chris Sandler is the COO of the Institute of International Banking Law & Practice, the organization which produces DCW. Reach Chris at sandler@iiblp.org
