On December 18, 2020, the Second International Commercial Court held a public hearing in Beijing on two standby letter of credit disputes between Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited, Manila Branch, Australia and New Zealand Bank (China) Limited, Shanghai Branch, China National Electric Engineering Co., Ltd., and Bank of Jiangsu Co., Ltd.

The two cases are payment disputes and fraud disputes arising from standby letters of credit and counter standby letters of credit, which are typical new types of financial disputes arising from the construction of Belt and Road Initiative in recent years, with a large amount of money at stake, and involving enterprises and banking institutions in China and the Philippines. The important legal issues involved are how to determine fraud in standby letters of credit and the criteria of injunction.

The two cases were heard by a panel consisting of five judges from the International Commercial Court, including Judge Shen Hongyu, Judge Xi Xiangyang, Judge Sun Xiangzhuang, Judge Yu Xiaohan and Judge Guo Zaiyu. Two experts from the International Commercial Expert Committee of the Supreme People’s Court, Professor Liu Jingdong, an invited consultant of the SPC and the Director of the International Economic Law Department of the Institute of International Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Professor Gao Xiang, Director of the International Banking Law and Practice Research Center for China University of Political Science and Law, attended the hearing. China Daily and other news media also attended the hearing.

The Court will issue the two decisions on a later date.

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*The original text is Chinese and has been translated into English for reference only. If there is any inconsistency or ambiguity between the Chinese version and the English version, the Chinese version shall prevail.