In international trade and transportation activities, not only carriers have the right to issue ocean bills of lading, but also freight forwarders who are not carriers have the right to issue ocean bills of lading. The following is the risk analysis of the L/C ocean bill of lading that I shared with you. Welcome to read and browse.
1 letter of credit business is the business of buying and selling documents.
A letter of credit is a conditional guarantee payment document issued by the bank to the beneficiary (exporter) at the request of the applicant (importer) or in its own name, that is, the exporter obtains payment from the issuing bank with the documents that meet the terms of the letter of credit within the validity period. In the letter of credit business, there is a triangular contractual relationship among the applicant, the issuing bank and the beneficiary. Importers and exporters are bound by contracts, applicants and issuing banks are bound by letters of credit, and issuing banks and beneficiaries are bound by letters of credit.
2 Risk Analysis of Bill of Lading under Letter of Credit
In international trade and transportation activities, not only carriers have the right to issue ocean bills of lading, but also freight forwarders who are not carriers have the right to issue ocean bills of lading. According to UCP 500, if there is no objection in the letter of credit, the bank will accept the bill of lading issued by the freight forwarder. However, UCP600 cancels the relevant regulations. Freight forwarder bill of lading? However, there is no clause against banks accepting bills of lading issued by freight forwarders. Therefore, under the condition of symbolic delivery, importers may suffer many risks of bill of lading, which are analyzed as follows:
(1) risk of cargo certificate discrepancy. The risk of the bill of lading not conforming to the goods is mainly manifested in three typical situations: empty documents, the quantity of goods not conforming to the bill of lading, and the replacement of clean bills of lading by letter of guarantee.
Short bill means that the bill of lading is in strict conformity with the letter of credit, but it is seriously inconsistent with the actual situation of the goods, and may even be out of stock at all. Article 34 of UCP600 stipulates that banks are not responsible for the form, sufficiency, accuracy, authenticity, falsehood or legal effect of any documents, nor for the general or special conditions stipulated or added in the documents; Banks are also not responsible for the description, quantity, weight, quality, condition, packaging, delivery, value or existence of the goods, services or other performance behaviors represented by any documents, nor are they responsible for the integrity, actions or omissions, solvency, performance or credit status of the consignor, carrier, freight forwarder, consignee, cargo insurer or any other person. It is this effective exemption that forms a risk loophole. Under the L/C settlement method of cash against documents, the seller only needs to obtain a blank bill of lading from the shipping company, marked "Yes"? Clean? 、? Has it been delivered? 、? The shipment date is earlier than the contract delivery date? Plus a fake signature. In addition, the other two basic documents in a set of foreign exchange settlement documents: the seller's invoice and the insurance policy, are easily forged. The invoice is issued by the seller, and the insurance company only issues the insurance policy according to whether the premium is paid, and does not check whether the goods will be shipped later. With this set of documents, the swindler can settle foreign exchange under the letter of credit and run away after getting the money.
The second case is that the actual quantity of the goods does not match the bill of lading. According to article 34 of UCP600 of international chamber of commerce? The Bank is not responsible for the form, sufficiency, accuracy, authenticity, falsehood or legal effect of any document, nor for the general or special conditions stipulated or added in the document; Banks are also not responsible for the description, quantity, weight, quality, condition, packaging, delivery, value or existence of the goods, services or other performance behaviors represented by any documents, nor are they responsible for the integrity, actions or omissions, solvency, performance or credit status of the consignor, carrier, freight forwarder, consignee, cargo insurer or any other person. ? This provision shows that the letter of credit only pays attention to the conformity of documents, which facilitates the seller's fraud.
In the third case, the clean bill of lading will be updated with the letter of guarantee. When the goods delivered by the shipper have defects in appearance, such as rags and rust spots, the ship will add bad reviews to the bill of lading. Banks will refuse to pay dirty bills of lading with bad comments. In order to protect their own interests, exporters (shippers) often adopt a compromise method, that is, issuing a letter of guarantee to guarantee compensation for ship losses and asking the carrier to issue a clean bill of lading. In this way, after paying the payment, the importer can only apply for a claim if he finds that the single goods do not match, and will suffer huge economic losses if he encounters malicious fraud.
(2) The risk of transportation delay. The risk of transportation delay is mainly to sign the bill of lading. According to the regulations, when the exporter fails to deliver the goods before the shipment date stipulated in the letter of credit, he cannot collect the payment under the letter of credit. However, in the contract where the exporter arranges transportation, the seller can negotiate with the carrier and ask the carrier to countersign the bill of lading so that the date of the bill of lading is earlier than the latest shipment date stipulated in the letter of credit, thus successfully settling foreign exchange. However, the date of the bill of lading is inconsistent with the actual delivery date, which will lead to the inability to obtain compensation when the goods are at risk in maritime transportation. In addition, the delay in transportation may make the importer's sales plan fail and bear the risk of market fluctuation.
(3) maritime transport risks beyond the carrier's responsibility. The risks of maritime transport beyond the carrier's responsibility are mainly the risks of transshipment bill of lading and manifest bill of lading. When there is no direct connection between the port of shipment and the port of destination, and the goods need to be transshipped, as far as ordinary ocean bills of lading are concerned, the issuer of the first and second voyage bills of lading only bears the transportation responsibility within its own transportation scope, and the importer actually bears the transshipment risk.
3 Precautionary measures against risks of bills of lading under letters of credit
(1) Strengthen credit investigation and choose trading partners carefully. Good financial ability and business reputation of customers are the most important moral guarantee for fulfilling contractual obligations. Therefore, before the transaction, it is necessary to conduct a customer credit survey through some independent investigation agencies. Carefully check the registered capital, paid-in capital, profit and loss, business scope, company equipment, bank address, business style and customer's past history. These have important reference value for choosing a good trading partner.
(2) Seriously conclude the terms of the letter of credit. The loopholes formed by the nature of the letter of credit can be overcome by the contents of the letter of credit. As the applicant for opening an L/C, the importer should draw up clauses in the L/C to strictly restrict the exporter's behavior, especially to strictly stipulate the signatory of the document and the contents of the document, so as to prevent the seller from cheating. In the terms of negotiation stipulated in the letter of credit, in addition to the three basic documents such as invoice, bill of lading and insurance policy, there are also some manufacturers' quality certificates, official commodity inspection certificates and export origin certificates that are not easy to be forged. , must be attached.
(3) Carefully examine the contents of the bill of lading. The paying bank and importer should carefully check the contents of the bill of lading before payment. First, check whether the issuer of the bill of lading is the carrier or the freight forwarder. If the bill of lading is issued by the shipper's agent (transport bank), the payment shall be refused. Under the conditions of C IF and CFR, it is best to ask the other party to submit a liner bill of lading, which must indicate the freight prepaid; Note that the bill of lading does not indicate that it is bound by the charter party; Check whether the number of copies of the original bill of lading is consistent with the number of copies recorded in the bill of lading; The bill of lading must be clean on board. Is there a comment attached? , but there can be no bad reviews; Do not accept manifest bills of lading; Transshipment is allowed if the letter of credit allows transshipment, but the same bill of lading should cover the whole journey, and the port of shipment and destination on the bill of lading are consistent with the provisions of the letter of credit. When the contract amount is large, it is best to adopt FOB clause in the contract, and the importer will arrange the transportation by himself to prevent the risk of fraud.
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