8:30 – 9:00 Registration & Check-In
9:00 – 9:30 Welcome & Introductions
9:30 – 10:30 The State of the SBLC Market
What’s driving SBLC usage right now, and what should that tell you? This opening panel unpacks the macro forces reshaping demand – shifting risk appetite, evolving treasury and working capital priorities, and the operational pressures pushing banks and corporates to rethink how they issue and manage standby credits.
10:30 – 11:00 Coffee & Networking Break
11:00 – 11:30 Coffee with Corporates
Corporates and bankers don’t always see the SBLC process the same way. In this candid conversation, leading corporate treasury voices sit down with a veteran SBLC banker to talk through where the friction actually is: slow turnarounds, mismatched expectations, and a push toward digitalization that’s moving faster on one side of the table than the other.
11:30 – 12:30 Objection, Your Honor: This Year in SBLC Litigation
Hear from our globally recognized legal experts about the latest SBLC and guarantee cases and their impact on your operations.
- Heineken Beverages International Ltd. v. Soleil Chartered Bank (Issuer of ISP98 standby LC moved complaint for nonpayment on the ground that standby was subject to exclusive jurisdiction in France based on letters “FR“ appearing in Field 44J in a SWIFT message)
- Incline Plaza Development v. Stearns Financial Services (NY property devel. co. alleges bank agreed to and repeatedly stated it would issue SBLC in MT760 format but failed to timely do so because it was “not connected“ to lender’s advising bank via SWIFT)
- Company v. Bank (Russian Company petitions Hong Kong Court for enforcement of London Court arbitral award ordering Canadian Bank to pay Company under bank guarantees)
- Lummus Technology Heat Transfer v. Credit Agricole CIB (injunction against payment under ISP98 standby based on force majeure and sanctions)
- UniCredit Bank, London Br v. Celestial Aviation Services Ltd. (UK sanctions & licensing; Confirming Bank’s ability to pay)
- CR Construction (UK) Company v. Barclays Bank (injunction against performance bond payment and return of URDG counter guarantee payment)
- Power Projects Sanayi Insaat Ticaret Ltd v. Star Assurance Co Ltd (legal nature of “classic performance bond“)
12:30 – 1:30 Lunch Break
1:30 – 2:30 Compute This: SBLCs Backstop the Data Center Boom
AI data center buildouts are some of the largest, most complex capital projects banks are financing right now, and SBLCs are increasingly the instrument backstopping them. This panel breaks down what makes these deals different: the scale, the new counterparties, and the risks specific to power, construction, and technology projects, so your team knows what to watch for and is ready to participate as this space keeps growing.
2:30 – 3:00 Sharing the Risk: Participation & Bank Fronted Surety
Banks are leaning harder on participations, surety, and other risk sharing structures to manage regulatory capital, control funding costs, and expand issuance capacity. This panel gets into how these tools actually work in practice and how they’re helping institutions grow their SBLC business without growing their balance sheet risk right alongside it.
3:00 – 3:30 Coffee & Networking Break
3:30 – 4:15 Auto-Extension Credits: Are Your Clauses in Order?
When it comes to non-extension clauses and expiration dates in evergreen standbys, wording matters more than practice rules. The recent Starr Indemnity case shows the effect that ambiguous wording and a missing locked-in expiration date can have on your SBLCs.
4:15 – 5:00 When Bad Clauses Happen to Good Bankers
Join our SBLC specialists in the operating room as they diagnose the most overbearing, unrealistic, and dysfunctional clauses in standby credits, from bloated scopes of liability to vague invocation triggers, expiry traps, and legal mismatches. Your own clause might be due for a check-up.
