LC: Negotiation with recourse

If the seller presents the documents to his bank, which is not the issuing bank and also not the confirming bank, then that bank negotiates the documents with recourse to him. This is because the seller's bank does not hold an undertaking to pay even though it is authorized to negotiate the documents.

The seller's bank on the other hand, may refuse to negotiate or give value of the documents to the seller. The principle of negotiation with recourse arises in a situation when:

• the negotiating bank is not able to obtain reimbursement from the issuing bank or from the applicant, that is the buyer because they have become insolvent
• rejection of documents as a result of discrepancies in documents for which the negotiating bank is either holding an indemnity or has negotiated under reserve.

It is a norm within banking industry worldwide that banks other than confirming bank, upon receipt of the documents from the seller, would redirect the said documents to the issuing bank for payment. Once the documents are found to be in order, the issuing bank will reimburse the negotiating bank and the seller will be paid. This may take some time before the seller could get his payment because the payment is made by the issuing bank in the country of the buyer.To cut short the traveling time of the documents as well as to avoid negotiation with recourse, the seller could ask for confirmation to be added to the said LC. By doing this, seller is entitled for his payment by tendering the documents to the confirming bank in his country.