Electronic (Paperless) Trading – History and Update 1 January 2022 Royston Deitch Executive Representative, Head of IG Matters/General Manager of Underwriting Administration Dept. (Solicitor) The exact date a bill of lading was first used to mark the handover of cargo for carriage on board a ship is lost in the sea fog of maritime history. What is clearer is that, for hundreds of years, a paper bill of lading was issued by the carrier and came to embody three functions : receipt for goods loaded, evidence of the terms of the contract of carriage, and a document of title to the cargo. Attempts to introduce an electronic bill of lading (or E-Bill) began in the oil industry in the 1980s. As it is a document of title, an original bill was and is needed to take delivery of cargo on arrival. However, oil cargoes can be traded many times in the course of a single voyage, and the slow progress of the original document through the banking system meant that it was rarely available when the cargo was discharged. This led to trading delays and disputes, and a wish to reform the system. Advantages of E-Bills include speed, a reduction in administrative costs, and a reduced risk of fraud, which is always possible with a paper document. Changing a system which had endured for centuries takes time, however. One obstacle to reform under English Law is that the Carriage of Goods By Sea Act (COGSA) 1992 does not apply to E-Bills, as the law currently does not recognise the concept of “possession” of an electronic record. This means that the “document of title” function of a paper bill of lading cannot be transferred to its electronic counterpart. The Law Commission of England and Wales is looking at revising this part of the law. The first E-Bills provider was called BOLERO, with a system which went live in September 1999. BOLERO allowed the transfer of title between users signed up to an electronic central registry system. Since then have come other systems where all users sign up to