06 February 2008

SWIFT Format: Field 44C (Latest Date of Shipment)

Field 44C (Latest date of shipment) is also another optional field. This field may or may not present. If it does not present, the shipment must be made within the validity of the LC.

If this field present, the shipment must be made within the date indicated in this field. The date indicated in this field is the limit within which the shipment must be made by the seller. This date should not exceed the expiry date of the LC.

Evidence of shipment is indicated in the transport documents like multimodal/combined transport document, Bill of Lading, Non-Negotiable Sea Waybill, Charter Party Bill of Lading, Air Transport Document, Road, Rail or Inland Waterway Document, Courier Receipt, Post Receipt or Certificate of Posting.

The date indicated on those documents is deemed to be the date of shipment and it should be within the date indicated in field 44C.

05 February 2008

SWIFT Format: Field 44A (Place of taking in charge...)

Field 44A (Place of taking in charge / dispatch from.. / Place of receipt) is an optional field. This is a field where a place or a point of handing over the goods to the carrier should be indicated. The place or point is depending on the trade terms used e.g. Ex-Work, FCA, FAS, FOB, CFR, CIF, CPT, CIP, DAF, DES, DEQ, DDU or DDP.

Field 44A is appropriate for multimodal transport where the place or point of handing over is any place on land.

Field 44E (Port of loading / Airport of Departure) on the other hand is most appropriate to be used where mode of transport is determined by vessel or aircraft.

Field 44F (Port of discharge / Airport of destination) is also an optional field where a place of actual physical delivery of the goods should be made in the country of the buyer. The same case applies to field 44B (Place of final destination / For transportation to… / Place of delivery).

The appropriate trade terms and fields to be used will be discussed in the coming post.

20 January 2008

LC SWIFT Format: Field 43T (Transshipment)

Field 43T (Transshipment) is an optional field. It may present or it may not present.

Transshipment is shipment of goods in a single journey, from the point of origin to the final destination using a combination of different mode of transport.

Whether or not transshipment is to be allowed or permitted, it is largely depends on the type and nature of the goods and the trade terms used; E term, F terms, C terms or D terms.

Containerized goods are subject to transshipment because they are normally delivered to the carrier at the seller’s premise or at a named place prior to loading on board the vessel. The goods will be transported by a trailer/lorry by road to the port and later loaded on board the vessel at the port of shipment. In this case, transshipment is to be allowed.

On the other hand, petroleum, grains, liquid cargo and other loose products normally will be delivered directly from the depot at the port of loading and on board the vessel. In this instance, transshipment is prohibited. However, this does not mean the transshipment will not take place. The goods may be unloaded and loaded onto another vessel.

Under this field, either ‘ALLOWED’ or ‘NOT ALLOWED’ is to be indicated.

07 January 2008

LC SWIFT Format: Field 43P (Partial Shipment)

Field 43P (Partial Shipment) is an optional field. The presence of this field would depend on the trade agreement between buyer and seller. Partial shipment is, in simple words, delivery of an order in two or more consignments, if allowed and mutually agreed upon by both parties, buyer and seller. The seller has the advantage to ship any quantity or amount lesser than the original order or as indicated in the LC in few shipments until fully delivered to the buyer.

For example, if the amount indicated under field 32B (Currency Code, Amount) is USD10,000.00, the seller may ship the goods worth of USD 3,000.00 in the first shipment, second shipment, USD5,000.00 and third shipment USD2,000.00.

Seller should always request that the LC specify whether partial shipment is allowed in order to avoid unexpected problems. In case partial shipment is allowed, the validity of the LC will not be affected even if a problem arises in meeting the delivery date. The total shipment of USD10,000.00 must be fully delivered within the expiry of the LC.

Under this field, either one of these words:

‘ALLOWED’ or
‘NOT ALLOWED’

should be indicated. If ‘NOT ALLOWED’ is indicated, the seller is to ship the whole order in one shipment only. The word ‘PROHIBITED’ sometimes is used instead of ‘NOT ALLOWED’.





06 January 2008

LC SWIFT Format: Field 42C (Drafts at...)

Field 42C (Drafts at…) is an optional field which means it can present or it may not present depending on the availability of the credit, either by Payment, Acceptance, Deferred payment or Negotiation (Field 41a).

Field 42C should present if the availability of the LC is made by Acceptance or Negotiation (Field 41a). On the other hand, if the LC is made available by payment or Deferred payment, field 42C would not present.

When field 42C presents, field 42D (Drawee) must also present. The Draft must be drawn by the drawer either on the issuing bank or the confirming bank, if any. Therefore, field 42D must present to indicate the Drawee bank. If the LC does not require confirmation by a confirming bank, the Draft must be drawn on the issuing bank. Again, the Drawee bank can either be indicated by full name and address or by indicating the SWIFT address or BIC.

The use of Draft or Bills of Exchange in trade is widely practiced by banks worldwide. The Draft can be drawn at sight or at a determinable future time (tenor/time). Further information on Draft will be posted later.

04 January 2008

LC SWIFT Format: Field 41D (Available with...by...)

Field 41D (Available with…by…) is a mandatory field which must present. ‘Available with’ refers to the bank which is a nominated bank, in the country of the seller, authorized by the issuing bank to make payment to the seller. The name of this bank must be expressly indicated either by indicating its’ Bank Identifier Code, which is the SWIFT address or the full name and address of that particular bank. In most cases, this bank is the correspondent bank of the issuing bank and normally an advising bank. However, it could also be the issuing bank which is in the country of the buyer.

For example, the nominated bank is Citibank N.A. London. It can be identified as CITIGB2L, which is the SWIFT address of Citibank, London. This is option ‘a’ for field 41 (41a).

The other option is to indicate the nominated bank under this field by expressly indicates the name of the bank with the full address. For example,

Citibank N.A.,
No 88, The Strand,
London WC2R 0DW.

This is option ‘D’ for field 41 (41D).

In the case where the LC is made available by ‘freely’ negotiation or ‘non-restricted’ negotiation, the nominated bank would not be named. This field will be indicated with ‘any bank’. This wording, ‘any bank’ refers to any bank in the country of the seller which is willing to take up the documents and negotiates. Seller may present the documents to any bank of his choice in his country. If the seller decides to present the documents to Union Bank of California, New York instead of his other bank, Chase Manhattan, New York, The Union Bank of California, New York is deemed to be the nominated bank (Article 2, UCP600).

The word ‘by’ here refers to the availability of the LC, either by payment, acceptance, deferred payment or by negotiation. If the LC is made available by payment, acceptance, deferred payment or ‘restricted’ negotiation, the name of the nominated bank must be expressly indicated under this field either using option ‘a’ or option ‘D’.
One of the following codes must be indicated under 'by...':
BY ACCEPTANCE
BY DEF PAYMENT
BY MIXED PYMT
BY NEGOTIATION
BY PAYMENT


02 January 2008

LC SWIFT Format: Field 50, 59 and 32B

Field 50 (Applicant) is another mandatory field which requires bank to expressly indicate the name of the applicant or buyer together with the address. (Sample of LC issued: SWIFT Format).

Field 59 (Beneficiary) is also a mandatory field where the the name of the buyer is to be indicated with full address.

Field 32B (Currency Code, Amount) is where the amount of the credit should be indicated. The currency code used in this field is ISO approved codes such as GBP (Great Britain Pound), USD (United States Dollar), MYR (Malaysian Ringgit), NLG (Netherland Guilder), FRF (French Franc), HKD (Hong Kong Dollar), SGD (Singapore Dollar), EUR (Euro) etc. This field is a mandatory field.



Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...