Issuance
Issuing a DC
Upon receiving the DC application, the Issuing Bank may either issue the DC (4b/4c) or return the DC (4a) to the applicant. When issuing the DC, the Issuing Bank would have to enter:
Issuing bank's DC reference
Additional conditions (issuing bank input, optional)
Instructions to paying/accepting/negotiating bank (optional)
Once issued, every party in the flow will be able to view the DC. The DC will then be forwarded to the Requested Confirmation Party (if any), the Nominated Bank, and the Advising Bank.
Once the Maker creates an DC issuance, and is verified and approved by the checker/approver, the DC is considered as Issued on the Contour platform. The status of the DC is updated to
Issued .This is comparable to the issuing bank sending an MT700 message via SWIFT.
Comparison with MT700
| MT700 field no. | MT700 field name | Comparable field in Contour | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 27 | Sequence of Total | Not required | |
| 40A | Form of Documentary Credit | Key terms - Form of documentary credit | |
| 20 | Documentary Credit Number | Banks - Issued DC reference | |
| 23 | Reference to Pre-Advice | Not available | |
| 31C | Date of Issue | Key terms - Issued date | |
| 40E | Applicable Rules | Key terms - Applicable rules | |
| 31D | Date and Place of Expiry | Key terms - Expiry date, Expiry place | |
| 51A | Applicant Bank | Banks - Issuing bank, legal name, address | |
| 50 | Applicant | Corporates - Applicant, legal name, address | |
| 59 | Beneficiary | Corporates - Beneficiary, legal name, address | |
| 32B | Currency Code, Amount | Key terms - Currency and Amount | |
| 39A | Percentage Credit Amount Tolerance | Key terms - Tolerance | |
| 39B | Maximum Credit Amount | Not available | |
| 39C | Additional Amounts Covered | Key terms - additional amounts covered | |
| 41A | Available With ... By ... | Banks - Credit available with, Available by | |
| 42C | Drafts at ... | Banks - Credit available by | This field will be shown when credit availability is by Acceptance or Negotiation |
| 42A | Drawee | Banks - Credit available by | This field will be shown when credit availability is by Acceptance or Negotiation |
| 42M | Mixed Payment Details | Banks - Credit available by, Payment conditions | Select multiple credit availability modes, and mention further conditions in Payment Conditions |
| 42P | Deferred Payment Details | Banks - Credit available by - select deferred payment | |
| 43P | Partial Shipments | Shipment details - Partial shipment | |
| 43T | Transshipment | Shipment details - Transhipment | |
| 44A | Place of Taking in Charge/Dispatch from .../ Place of Receipt | Shipment details - Place of taking in charge | |
| 44E | Port of Loading/Airport of Departure | Shipment details - Port of loading | |
| 44F | Port of Discharge/Airport of Destination | Shipment details - Port of discharge | |
| 44B | Place of Final Destination/For Transportation to.../ Place of Delivery | Shipment details - Place of final destination | |
| 44C | Latest Date of Shipment | Shipment details - Shipment date/period | |
| 44D | Shipment Period | Shipment details - Shipment date/period | |
| 45A | Description of Goods and/or Services | Shipment details - Description of goods and/or services | |
| 46A | Documents Required | DC details - Documents required | |
| 47A | Additional Conditions | DC details - Additional conditions (from applicant), Additional conditions (from issuing bank) | |
| 49G | Special Payment Conditions for Beneficiary | DC reference - Additional conditions (from issuing bank) | Available for input only to the issuing bank |
| 49H | Special Payment Conditions for Bank only | Not available - use P2P messages | Available for input only to the issuing bank |
| 71D | Charges | DC details - details of charges | |
| 48 | Period for Presentation in Days | Shipment details - Period of presentation | |
| 49 | Confirmation Instructions | Banks - Confirmation Instructions | |
| 58A | Requested Confirmation Party | Banks - Requested confirmation party | |
| 53A | Reimbursing Bank | Not available on Contour | |
| 78 | Instructions to the Paying/Accepting/Negotiating Bank | DC reference - Instructions to the Paying / Accepting / Negotiating bank | |
| 57A | 'Advise Through' Bank | Not available on Contour | |
| 72 | Sender to Receiver Information | Please use P2P messages for this |
Confirmation
If the confirmation instructions is ‘Confirm’, the requested confirmation party will be able to advise the DC with or without adding their confirmation, or reject the DC (5).
If the confirmation instructions is ‘May add’, the requested confirmation party may reject, advise with or without confirmation. If the requested confirmation party advised the DC without adding its confirmation, the Beneficiary may then request confirmation from the Requested confirmation party.
When advising the DC, the Requested Confirmation Party would have to input its own reference number.
If the confirmation instructions is ‘Without’, there would not be a requested confirmation party and the DC will be sent from the Issuing Bank to the Nominated Bank.
Advising a DC
After the DC is issued and optionally confirmed by the confirming bank, the nominated and advising bank may advise or reject the DC (6 & 7).
When advising the DC, the Nominated Bank and Advising Bank would have to input its own bank’s reference number.
If a bank rejects a DC, then further updates or amendments to the DC will not be sent to the bank.
SWIFT messages
MT730: Acknowledgement
Audit logs are updated at all stages to reflect each party's action on the DC. Further, notification emails are auto triggered when there are actions on the DC. This is comparable to sending MT730 (Acknowledgement) to the sending bank.
MT710: Advice of a Third Bank’s Documentary Credit
When the confirming/nominated/advising bank advice the DC on Contour, it is comparable to sending a SWIFT MT710 message to the next party.
Beneficiary
The issuance flow ends when all the banks have advised (or rejected) the DC. The beneficiary can now either
- Request for an amendment
- Present documents
Once all the banks have advised the DC, the beneficiary may request confirmation from the Requested Confirmation Party if confirmation instructions is 'May add' and the Requested Confirmation Party has previously advised without giving its confirmation.
Note that the beneficiary is able to view the DC and it's contents right from the initial stage (during application). So they do not have to wait for the DC to be explicitly advised before viewing the contents. The DC is visible to them throughout the application and issuance journey.