Application of Distributed Ledger Technology for Settlements by Letters of Credit

The paper carries out a legal analysis of three models of settlements by letters of credit with the use of distributed ledger technology. First, this refers to the model of settlements that uses blockchain as a way of transferring documents under the letter of credit. Second, the author investigates the model of settlements where two smart contracts are used. In the author’s view, such smart contracts should be seen as a way of executing the contracts that, in practice, form the settlement procedure with the use of letters of credit. Third, the most interesting is the settlement model where the payer and the recipient of funds (payee) enter into one smart contract that provides non-cash settlements between them with the use of the P2P service. There is no financial intermediary that organizes non-cash settlements in this settlement model. This difference makes it possible to conclude that settlements similar to settlements with the use of letters by credit via blockchain technology and carried out on the principle of P2P, should be considered as a new form of non-cash settlements. The peculiarity of this form of non-cash settlements is the opportunity given to direct participants of the settlement to fulfil their monetary obligations without using cash and without any assistance of financial intermediaries.