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Sanctions clauses in documentary credit transactions: a cautionary tale

18 March 2024 / Author(s): Susan Wong , Lim Wei , Felix Lee
Issue: January 2024 / Categories: Feature

In the current geopolitical climate, sanctions are increasingly used as a foreign policy tool and can have significant implications for contractual obligations in international trade. In Kuvera Resources Pte Ltd v JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. [2023] SGCA 28, the Singapore Court of Appeal held that a confirming bank could not deny payment to the beneficiary of two letters of credit (LCs) on the ground that its confirmations of the LCs included a contractual clause (Sanctions Clause) extinguishing the confirming bank’s liability as the underlying commercial transaction was allegedly caught by the sanctions laws of the US.

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