The negotiability of money market securities and information and communications technology: a call for the dematerialisation of bills of exchange and promissory notes

摘要

This article considers the significance of information and communications technology to the negotiability of money market securities in Australia and, by extension, other jurisdictions with legislation derivative from the UK's Bills of Exchange Act 1882. It argues for the dematerialisation of bills of exchange and promissory notes through statutory provision for their creation, recording, and transfer by electronic means. While electronic bills and notes could, arguably, meet the statutory requirements for writing and signature and, therefore, be valid at common law, their legislative recognition would reduce the compliance costs that their paper counterparts generate with little if any risk of computer fraud. Perhaps more importantly, it would give certainty to businesses open to electronic commerce and, thereby, help to realign commercial law with commercial practice.