Description

About the Webinar:
This webinar explores the extent to which targeted sanctions and artificial intelligence (AI) may have an impact on the document examination process under documentary credits. It offers, in the first place, insight into the practice of conducting sanctions screening on the documents tendered for payment. This essentially means that the documents must be scrutinised against applicable sanctions lists which contain designated persons and entities. A positive match in this regard may result in the bank refusing to process payment. Secondly, it offers insight on the use of AI to assist in determining the conformity of the documents. Depending on the AI solution employed, such assistance could in principle entail minimal, moderate or complete automation of the document examination process. The general risks associated with using AI may, however, emerge during this process. Such risks include bias, discrimination as well as privacy and data protection concerns. Should these risks materialise, they could have an impact on the outcome of the examination process.

The webinar concludes with the point that while targeted sanctions and AI are fundamentally intended for good, they present material risks to the examination process under documentary credits. A call is made for regulatory intervention in relation to (i) the practice of complying with foreign sanctions lists and (ii) the general use of AI and other emerging technologies. In the absence of regulatory intervention of especially AI, self-regulation should be prioritised as an interim measure.

About the Speaker:
Dr Cayle Lupton is a Senior Lecturer of Law in the Faculty of Law at the University of Johannesburg and Director of the Centre for Banking Law, a centre of the University of Johannesburg. He is also an Attorney of the High Court of South Africa, a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (USA), and a member of the Global South Dialogue on Economic Crime (UK).

Cayle teaches at the undergraduate and postgraduate level. His research interests include international banking law, specifically in the areas of trade finance, financial crime and targeted sanctions. His research has been recognised at the international level, most recently by the Court of Appeal of Singapore and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Prior to joining academia, Cayle worked in legal practice where he was mostly involved in commercial litigation, contractual advisory and regulatory compliance. He holds the degrees LLB, LLM and LLD from the University of Johannesburg and a certificate in Trade Finance Compliance from the London Institute of Banking and Finance.