UNCITRAL Colloquium on Digital Payments and Paperless Trade, 19-22 January 2026, Vienna

Colloquium on Digital Payments and Paperless Trade

Dates of Colloquium: Monday, 19 January to Thursday, 22 January 2026 
Venue: Vienna International Centre, Vienna 
Time: 9:30 – 12:30; 14:00 – 17:00 Vienna time (Central European Time) except for the first day of the Colloquium, Monday, 19 January 2026, when the meeting will commence at 10:00 a.m. (Central European Time). 

At its 58th session (Vienna, 7-23 July 2025) (see A/80/17, para. 245, 270 and 347), the Commission requested the UNCITRAL secretariat to undertake exploratory and preparatory work on digital payments and paperless trade respectively, including by holding colloquiums on these topics. In line with that request, the secretariat organized a Colloquium in two parts: Part I on digital payments (19-20 January 2026) and Part II on paperless trade (21-22 January 2026). The Colloquium was intended to advance the exploratory and preparatory work, consistent with UNCITRAL’s efforts to provide an enabling legal framework and guidance supportive of end-to-end trade digitalization, of which digital payments and paperless trade are two key components.

Part I (Digital payments) aimed to (i) map and analyse existing international and domestic legal frameworks governing digital payments, with a view to identifying specific legal issues, challenges and gaps that could inform any future legislative work by UNCITRAL, and (ii) refine potential legislative options to consider the most suitable approach to addressing the emerging challenges and gaps identified, including whether there would be a need to revise the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Credit Transfers (1992) or to develop a new instrument. Particular attention was paid to intersections with existing regulatory frameworks and clearly defining the scope of possible future work with UNCITRAL's mandate and to future-proofing such work, ensuring its adaptability to new forms of digital assets.  

Part II (Paperless trade) aimed to provide additional insight on the features of an enabling legal framework for paperless trade, including by identifying any legislative gap, for consideration by the Commission. Given the broad scope of application of UNCITRAL texts, such as the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce (1996) (MLEC), the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (2017) (MLETR) and the UNCITRAL Model Law on the Use and Cross-border Recognition of Identity Management and Trust Services (2022) (MLIT), an enabling legal framework may already be established based on existing texts. Part II was complemented by webinars discussing related topics, such as policy options for paperless trade and their legal implications, and the progress towards common legal and technical standards for digital trade.

The outcomes of the Colloquium will be presented to the Commission for consideration at its fifty-ninth session (New York, 22 June - 10 July 2026). 

Programme

Speakers' bios

Flyer

Exploratory work on digital payments - Concept note

Preparatory work on paperless trade - Concept note 

Presentations for Part I (Digital payments) (forthcoming)

Presentations for Part II (Paperless trade):

           Panel 1 – Regional experiences in establishing an enabling legal framework for paperless trade

• Lia Potec

• Vashti Maharaj

• Nitas Polachai

           Panel 2 – Cross-border recognition of electronic documents

• Goran Andreev

           Panel 3 – Cross-border recognition of identity management and trust services

• Nikolay Dmitrik

• David Magård

           Panel 6 – Facilitating exchanges with public entities

• Daniel Wright

Additional events in preparation of the Colloquium

In preparation for Part II of the Colloquium on paperless trade, the secretariat organized a webinar on 19 November entitled “Paperless trade and trade digitalization: state of the art”. The secretariat welcomed Silvia Sorescu (Policy Analyst, OECD) and Satya Prasad Sahu (Senior Trade Facilitation Specialist, the World Bank Group), as speakers for the webinar to discuss the OECD document on The Digitalisation of Trade Documents and Processes: Going Paperless Today, Going Paperless Tomorrow (OECD) and the Digital Trade Regulatory Readiness (DTRR) database developed by the World Bank.   

Summary

Flyer and programme with speakers

The secretariat also organized a hybrid side event during the forty-seventh session of UNCITRAL Working Group VI (15-19 December 2025, Vienna) on 17 December 2025 entitled “Uniform standards for reliability assessment”, to take stock of trends, policy and legal issues in paperless trade looking at, among others, significant developments and insights from relevant entities and stakeholders. The secretariat welcomed GUO Yu (Associate Professor, Peking University Law School), Keith Jansa (Chief Executive Officer, Digital Governance Council), and Marina Comninos (Co-Head, ICE Digital Trade) as speakers to assess reliability standards in conjunction with relevant UNCITRAL texts, in particular the MLETR, UNCITRAL - UNIDROIT Model Law on Warehouse Receipts and the UN Convention on Negotiable Cargo Documents.  

Flyer

Programme with speakers