Article 7, UCP 600-Issuing Bank Undertaking
Article 7 of UCPDC 600:
a. Provided that the stipulated documents are presented to the nominated bank or to the issuing bank and that they constitute a complying presentation, the issuing bank must honour if the credit is available by:
An issuing bank issues an undertaking in form of letter of credit to honour the complied presentation, they must have to honour as per availability term given in field 41a of letter of credit, point to remember here that beneficiary has always an option to bypass nominated bank and present documents directly to issuing bank as nominated bank concept is to make beneficiary life easier, we shall focus more on “available by” concept used in field 41a while discussing an issuing bank undertaking as letter of credit is always “available with” issuing bank even if particular field shown availability with nominated bank.
i. sight payment, deferred payment or acceptance with the issuing bank;
Sight payment means to make the payment to the beneficiary upfront/immediately upon receipt of the complied document within maximum a 5 banking days after receipt of presentation. A Deferred payment option is a right to defer payments till a maturity date as per tenure stated in USANCE letter of credit, it is mostly used in jurisdiction where custom duties are high for bill of exchange wherein “available by acceptance” has the same meaning as deferred payment, added bill of exchange drawn on issuing bank which gives an extra layer of security to beneficiary to utilize the bill of exchange's acceptance by issuing bank to make the payment on maturity.
ii. Sight payment with a nominated bank and that nominated bank does not pay;
Before moving further, we shall know about a Nominated bank, If
a nominated bank is not the confirming bank, an authorization to honour or
negotiate does not impose any obligation on that nominated bank to honour or
negotiate, except when expressly agreed in written by that nominated bank and
so communicated to the beneficiary.
As we have already discussed and understand an obligation of a nominated bank, final liability to settle beneficiary is on issuing bank as an undertaking being issued by them in favour of beneficiary, so if a letter of credit is “available with” a nominated bank for immediate settlement and nominated bank does not pay, an issuing bank must need to honour.
iii. deferred payment with a nominated bank and that nominated bank does not incur its deferred payment undertaking or, having incurred its deferred payment undertaking, does not pay at maturity;
Same as above if it is available with nominated bank by deferred payment and that nominated bank does not incur its deferred payment undertaking or already communicated to beneficiary regarding their deferred payment incurrence but defaults to pay on maturity due to various reason, in that case again final liability will come to an issuing bank and issuing bank has to make the payment to beneficiary.
iv. Acceptance with a nominated bank and that nominated bank does not accept a draft drawn on it or, having accepted a draft drawn on it, does not pay at maturity;
A letter of credit is available with nominated bank and draft is drawn on same, however, they deny to accept the USANCE draft upon complied presentation or already accepted but denied to make payment to beneficiary on maturity date then an issuing bank of letter of credit will have to make the payment to beneficiary.
v. Negotiation with a nominated bank and that nominated bank does not negotiate.
Article 2 defines ‘negotiation’ as the purchase by the
nominated bank of drafts (drawn on a bank other than the nominated bank) and/or
documents under a complying presentation, by advancing or agreeing to advance
funds to the beneficiary on or before the banking day on which reimbursement is
due to the nominated bank.
If a nominated bank does not negotiate, issuing bank must have to honour the complied presentation on maturity, an issuing bank cannot negotiate.
b. An issuing bank is irrevocably bound to honour as of the time it issues the credit.
An undertaking issued by an issuing bank is irrevocable and bound them to honour the complied presentation to serve the purpose of the letter of credit.
c. An issuing bank undertakes to reimburse a nominated bank that has honoured or negotiated a complying presentation and forwarded the documents to the issuing bank. Reimbursement for the amount of a complying presentation under a credit available by acceptance or deferred payment is due at maturity, whether or not the nominated bank prepaid or purchased before maturity. An issuing bank's undertaking to reimburse a nominated bank is independent of the issuing bank's undertaking to the beneficiary.
Primarily, an issuing bank provides an undertaking to a
beneficiary to honour a complying presentation. UCP 600 also reflects the
obligation of an issuing bank when a nominated bank has acted on its nomination
and honoured or negotiated, and is expecting to be reimbursed according to the
terms and conditions of the documentary credit. An issuing bank will provide a separate
undertaking to nominated bank usually in form of acceptance or swift message to
settle the nominated bank’s account on maturity where beneficiary is not
involved as their bill is already settled as per letter of credit.
A nominated bank’s negotiation is effected either with or without recourse (usually with recourse), less interest for the period commencing the date of payment until the expected date that reimbursement will be received from the issuing bank. A draft, if any, will usually be drawn on the issuing bank, but could be drawn on a reimbursing bank, if in case they have honoured the complied presentation on without recourse basis, will not be able to take funds back from beneficiary if their account is not being settled by issuing bank, that is why mostly a nominated bank negotiates on with recourse basis that too upon acceptance from issuing bank to safeguard themselves from credit risk.
why issuing bank cannot negotiate ..
ReplyDelete