Cartas de crédito y garantías stand-by

Jorge Alberto Padilla Sánchez, Maximiliano Rodríguez Fernández

• Editorial: Universidad Externado
• Año: 2020
• ISBN del libro electrónico: 9789587904475
• Categoría: Derecho
• Categoría: Derecho mercantil

El crédito documentado, primero, en la forma de un medio de pago en lo que se denomina comúnmente por el mercado como carta de crédito comercial, y, segundo como garantía de cumplimiento de las obligaciones en lo que denominamos normalmente como garantías o cartas de crédito contingentes o Stand-By ha desempeñado un papel fundamental en las operaciones de comercio internacional (aunque también nacional). El presente trabajo tiene como propósito fundamental analizar ambos instrumentos (cartas de crédito comerciales y garantías Stand-by), la manera cómo operan en el comercio de la actualidad, la reglamentación que acompaña su uso, la estructura misma de dichas operaciones; los diferentes tipos que de estos instrumentos se han desarrollado en los mercados internacionales y las hipótesis de incumplimiento de las obligaciones que, con mayor frecuencia, se presentan en su implmentación

NOTAS AL PIE

CAPÍTULO PRIMERO
EL CRÉDITO DOCUMENTARIO Y LAS CARTAS DE CRÉDITO

1 “Con frecuencia se afirma que la continuidad histórica de las operaciones mercantiles se explica por la estrecha relación que guardan los documentos utilizados en la actualidad con los que se usaban en las ciudades italianas del siglo XII o por los comerciantes europeos del siglo XVII. Esta afirmación no ha suficientemente probada por lo que se refiere al crédito documentario ya que no se encuentra ninguna conección de carácter unívoco ni uniforme que encauce la corriente de fenómenos jurídicos ligados a dicha institución.” KOZOLCHYK, BORIS, El crédito documentario en el derecho americano: un estudio comparativo (Instituto de ultura Hispánica, 1973), 77.

2 Al respecto Baker señala que “Their usage in practice of international trade has been traced to banking systems of old Egypt and Babylon. Some excavations in Babylon provide evidences of promissory notes from 3000 B.C that show the promise for payment of exact amount and relevant interest rate in a defined date. Also evidences from ancient Greece show drawing of Letter of Credits by banks to their correspondents in order to obviate the transport of Spices in return to payment of accounts”. BAKER, B., Exporting Against Letters of Credit, recuperado de http://www.qfinance.com/contentFiles/QF02/g1xtn5q6/12/3/exporting-against-letters-of-credit.pdf (visitado el 15 de julio del 2015).

3 TRIMBLE, R. J., The Law relating to commercial Letters of Credit (Londres: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, 1955), 2. Aunque Ellinger niega esa posibilidad. ELLINGER, Documentary Letters of Credit: A comparative Study (Singapure University Press, 1970), 24. Al respecto, Zsuzsanna Tóth señala que “Some scholars believe that the origins of letters of credit go back to ancient Egypt and Babylon, which had an adequate system of banking. Rufus Trimble mentions a clay promissory note of Babylon dating from 3000 B.C., exhibited in the University Museum of Philadelphia, USA, which provided for repayment of an amount and the interest on a specific date. Wigmore refers to an evidence of an obligation made in 248 B.C. in Egypt “for the repayment, in wheat, or upon default double its value, of a loan of money from one Zenon, which ends with: ‘and the right of execution shall rest with Zenon and the person bearing the note on behalf of Zenon’. It is also verified that banks of ancient Greece prepared letters of credit ‘on correspondents with the view to obviating the actual transport of specie in payment of accounts’”. ZSUZSANNA TÓTH, Documentary credits in international commercial transactions with special focus on the fraud rule (Athens/Budapest, 2006). Disponible en https://jak.ppke.hu/uploads/articles/12332/file/T%C3%B3th%20Zsuzsanna%20PhD.pdf (consultada el 1 de marzo del 2018).

4 “With the collapse of the Roman Empire the role of the banks as well as the great extent of commerce between trading nations diminished. It was not until the 12th and early 13th century that banks in Genoa, Venice, Florence and other European cities were re-established. At this time merchants had to face two major problems: (a) travelling with gold was very dangerous; and (b) commerce generated currency that was not sufficient to satisfy the needs of traders.” DAVIDSON, ALAN, The Evolution of Letters of Credit Transactions. Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law, vol. 10, n.° 3, (1995): 128.

5 “In the thirteenth century King John sent two representatives to Rome armed with a letter in which he undertook to honour drafts drawn by merchants drawn on the King”, ver SANBORN F. R., Origins of the Early English Maritime and Commercial Law (Nueva York, 1930), 347. “There are commentators who believe that their development in Europe was inspired by the discoveries made by Marco Polo in the 13th century who reported the use of currency and other negotiable documents in China, concluding that such a measure was one of the reasons for the ways and means by which the Great Chan can have and indeed does have more treasures than all the kings in the world”. DE ROOY, F. D., Documentary Credits (1984) The Netherlands, p. 6. En el mismo sentido: DAVIDSON, ALAN, The Evolution of Letters of Credit Transactions, Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law, vol. 10, n.° 3 (1995): 129.

6 “Some legal writers have suggested that the precursor of the modern letter of credit was the twelfth century form of bill of exchange used in the Mediterranean region, known as the ‘letter of payment’ or ‘letter of exchange’, under which the creditor requested or ordered its debtor to pay a third party. Others say that the forerunner of the letter of credit was the open letter of credit of the medieval age”. GAO, XIANG. The Fraud Rule in the Law of Letters of Credit. A Comparative Study (Kluwer Law International, 2002), 9.

7 Aunque F. D. de Rooy ubica la utilización de instrumentos similares en la antigua Grecia. DE ROOY, F. D., Documentary Credits (The Netherlands, 1984), 6.

8 MOLINA MARTÍNEZ, LUIS, El crédito documentario y sus documentos (FC Editorial, 2001), 47.

9 “De Roover also refers to Letters of Credit used by the Medidi Bank between 1385 and 1401. The various provisions of the letters are strikingly similar to those of the modern letters of credit. They stated for example that (a) payments are to be made as requested by a named beneficiary; (b) the payments could not exceed a specific sum; (c) the payor shall obtain receipts from the beneficiary; (d) the payment shall be charged to the account of the issuer with the payor; or (e) upon receipt of a written notice from the payor that the amount has been paid, the issuer shall credit the payor’s account accordingly.” DE ROOVER, RAYMOND, Money, Banking and Credit in Medieval Bruges, 2 Journal of Economic History (Suppl. Issue) (1942): 52. También, TRIMBLE, RUFUS JAMES, The Law Merchant and the Letters of Credit, 61 Harvard Law Review (1948): 985.

10 RODNER S., JAMES-OTIS. El crédito documentario (Caracas, 1989), 43.

11 “Durante el siglo 17 y al mismo tiempo que la letra de cambio comenzaba a configurarse como título valor, En Inglaterra al igual que en el Continente europeo era frecuente el uso de otro documento denominado ‘carta de crédito’ y cuyo contenido era más o menos el siguiente: ‘Un comerciante envía a su amigo o criado a comprar mercancías o a procurarse el dinero con un determinado propósito y le entrega una carta dirigida a otro comerciante suplicándole que para que su amigo, el portador de esa carta, tenga iocasión de adquirir las mercaderías o procurarse el dinero, sea el mismo quien se los provea que, or su parte, el comerciante le remitirá o se los reintegrará’”. KOZOLCHYK, BORIS, El crédito documentario en el derecho americano: un estudio comparativo (Instituto de ultura Hispánica, 1973), 77.

12 Sobre la forma como funcionaban los Merchant Bankers ver MEIR KOHN, Merchant banking in the medieval and early modern economy (Dartmouth College Hanover, Department of Economics. Working Paper 99-05, 1999).

13 Para Cadena Afanador “El precedente del crédito documentario fue la carta de crédito emitida por los Merchant Bankers ingleses. Aun cuando a mediados del siglo VIII se realizaron transacciones ocasionales que guardaban similitud con los créditos, no se realizaron operaciones que tuviesen similitud con la moderna carta de crédito hasta mediados del siglo XIX”. CADENA AFANADOR, WALTER RENÉ, La nueva Lex mercatoria: transnacionalización del derecho (Universidad Libre, 2004), 94.

14 Con el propósito de explicar la operación en su versión más temprana el profesor Dolan suministra el siguiente ejemplo: “[…] a Florentine merchant who bought wool from an Amsterdam merchant could issue a bill of exchange to the Dutch merchant’s agent in Florence directing a third party (the drawee) to pay the sum due for the wool. The agent, having taken the bill in payment for the wool, could travel across Europe or by sea to a commercial center, where he would meet the drawee and ask the drawee for payment. The drawee would pay the draft either (1) in gold (though such payment would be rare); (2) by ‘clearing’, that is, by setting the draft off against sums due from the Dutch merchant on other drafts; or (3) by accepting the draft and returnin...

Índice

• Cubierta
• Portadilla
• Portada
• Créditos
• Contenido
• INTRODUCCIÓN
• CAPÍTULO PRIMERO EL CRÉDITO DOCUMENTARIO Y LAS CARTAS DE CRÉDITO
• CAPÍTULO SEGUNDO CARTAS DE CRÉDITO CONTINGENTES (STAND-BY LETTERS OF CREDIT)
• CAPÍTULO TERCERO BLOCKCHAIN, SMART CONTRACTS Y CRÉDITOS DOCUMENTARIOS
• Notas al pie
• BIBLIOGRAFÍA
• Contracubierta