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"Lost LC World" is online memorial, on line museum, to depict the life of a
specialist who once roamed the LC world, shaped the LC world, educated the
LC world, guided and influenced the LC world. He was Bernard Spencer Wheble.
His works in and contributions to LC world are legendary, immortalized. They
are inspiring for new generation of LC specialists. They are an example.
They are a lesson. For example, the world-famous LC specialist T. O. Lee
took to LC specialization to model his professional life on Bernard Wheble,
whose professional life he found exemplary, worth emulating.
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Legendary
Bernard Spencer Wheble
(1904 – 1998) |
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Bernard Spencer Wheble was a very
renowned and respectable figure in the LC world, which benefited a great
from his knowledge and works. In its tribute to him on his death in February
1998 the ICC says "Bernard Wheble was known in banking circles throughout
the world as the father of documentary credits". T. O. Lee, who met him for
the first time in Hong Hong during a UCP seminar, says in his tribute in
Documentary Credit World, April 1998, " I was amazed by his profound
knowledge on the (LC) subject and his analytic mind". (Read the full
T.O. Lee tribute on:
http://www.tolee.com/html/col281.htm)
Bernard Wheble was chairman of the
ICC Banking Commission for more than two decades. He played a great
contributory role in shaping and reshaping UCP. He authored/edited several
ICC publications. For example:
Mr Wheble was on the board of the
UK-based Brown Shipley & Co. Ltd ., a banking company, and a consultant
with the Committee of London and Scottish Bankers.
The ICC publication "ICC Guide to
the e-UCP"
is dedicated to him as he had once predicted that paper-based LC will one
day become paperless LC.
In respect to technology changes for
transport documents he is quoted for saying that: “where the source of
the problem is an established commercial practice, possibly pre-dating the
first invention of the wheel, the solution demands a change in that
practice. Certainly, it should not be a re-invention of the wheel, it should
merely be supplying it with new and better tyres".
He understood better than many
bankers the link between delivery and payment when he said that: “in
matching delivery and payment... the link is the transport document”
This is why he worked to hard in
changing the UCP requirements to the transport documents when revising the
UCP 400. The result was – as we know much more detailed requirements – but
also the introduction of the Non negotiable Sea Waybill and the Multimodal
transport document. Bernard Wheble fought hard was successful in the
incorporation of waybills into UCP 500. The reason for his struggle was,
that he knew that if the documents presented under the LC would one day
become electronic, then the negotiable bill of lading would indeed present a
problem – that a waybill type document would not. Although the waybill is
only seldom used in LC transactions – his prediction has proven correct: The
bill of lading is a huge stone blocking for the electronic LC.
On these – and many other issues Mr.
Wheble has proven to be a man of wisdom, foresight and clarity.
This is also the impression that one
will get when reading some of the tributes given after his death in 1998:
(All excerpts)
Boris Kozolchyk:
“… The world of letters of credit
and of international trade and those of us lucky enough to have been exposed
to his wisdom and devotion to his goal are his deeply indebted
beneficiaries…”
John Rechardson:
“… He had an uncanny knack of
being able to identify the point of an ill-phrased question from a muddled
member of the audience, which he would the restate in simple terms for the
benefit of his bemused colleagues before replying in equally simple terms –
often with a touch of humor – the sign of an expert master of his trade at
work…”
“… For me, and I am sure many
others worldwide, Bernard’sa death leaves an unfillable void, both as a
friend and as a superb master of his craft…”
Dan Taylor
“… During this period [as
Honorary Chairman of the ICC Banking Commission] no one else has shaped the
letter of credit business as much as Bernard…”
Martin Shaw
“… Wherever I travelled around
Europe and beyond his was the one name everybody knew and enquired about. In
these days of e-mail and websites, the letters www must surely stand for
World Wide Wheble…”
Valerie Sowther
“… Right up to his death, Bernard
was active in the Trade Finance field both in an advisory capacity and also
as an active member of the International Chamber of Commerce Electronic
Commerce Project…”
ICC
“… Bernard Wheble was known in
banking circles throughout the world as “the father of documentsry credits
…”
Ray Batteersby
“… A major figure and leading
influence in banking practice and international trade for over half a
century, Bernard Wheble played a crucial role in the development of
documentary credit rules, electronic commerce and trade facilitation…
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