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 is organizing 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 is 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. 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).

Part I (Digital payments) aims 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 is to be 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) aims to further explore and analyse the use of UNCITRAL electronic commerce texts for paperless trade. Given the broad scope of application of relevant UNCITRAL electronic commerce texts, such as the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce (1996) (MLEC) and the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (2017) (MLETR), an enabling legal framework for paperless trade may be established on the basis of those existing texts. The discussions are intended to support preparation of a guidance document or possible model legislation on paperless trade for consideration by the Commission.  

Participants in the Colloquium are invited to contribute to the discussion of those issues. The secretariat is making arrangements to broadcast the session via UN Web TV. Detailed information about access to the Vienna International Centre and connection details, if any, will be communicated to registered participants by email in due course. 

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 (forthcoming)

Flyer

Exploratory work on digital payments - Concept note

Preparatory work on paperless trade - Concept note (forthcoming)

Presentations (forthcoming)

Video recordings (forthcoming)

Webinar in preparation of the Colloquium on paperless trade

In preparation for Part II of the Colloquium on paperless trade, the secretariat is organizing a webinar to take stock of trends, policy and legal issues in paperless trade, entitled "Paperless trade and trade digitalization: state of the art". The webinar will take place on 19 November 2025 via Zoom. For background, OECD and OSCE have recently issued policy documents on paperless trade (The Digitalisation of Trade Documents and Processes: Going Paperless Today, Going Paperless Tomorrow (OECD); A Practical Guide to Cross-border Facilitation (OSCE)). Moreover, the World Bank has released the Digital Trade Regulatory Readiness (DTRR) database to measure trade digitalization. One DTRR pillar refers to electronic transactions, and one policy area to paperless trade. These documents provide a guiding framework in which UNCITRAL can carry out its preparatory work on paperless trade and trade digitalization, mindful that, while paperless trade, as a B2G process, is part of end-to-end trade digitalization, it may still require specific enabling legal solutions.

Register

Flyer and programme with speakers

Presentations (forthcoming)

Video recordings (forthcoming)