UCPDC-600

Highlights
Objective
After going through this presentation you will be able
to:
Explain some of the articles of UCPDC
 UCPDC-600
International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) publishes
Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits
(UCPDC). UCPDC-600 is the latest and applicable
version in force.
Bankers are required to refer to all provisions
(articles) of only the original UCPDC document
published by ICC for interpretation of Letters of
Credit (LCs) and documents, including advising,
confirming, scrutiny of documents, and making
payments thereunder.
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Applicability
Article 1 states that all LCs issued should mention the
following clause:
This credit is subject to UCP 600 or UCP 600 ICC 2007
Revision, unless excluded or modified in the credit.

UCPDC-600 continues to cover Standby LCs.

Article 2 covers definitions of terms used in LCs.

Article 4
Article 4 brings a new rule to:
Deter banks from allowing the applicant to
incorporate excessive descriptions of goods, by
attaching pro-forma invoices or contracts to LC, or
sending them to Advising Bank after issuance, by
making it an integral part of LC .
(Article 4.b)

Banks are forced to review all details of goods to

determine compliance.
Article 5
The banks:
Make a decision based Have no concern as to
on the documents. the goods, services, or
performance to which
they may relate.
Article 6

A credit Beneficiary may A credit that is

specifies: present available by a
• a named documents to a draft drawn on
bank with nominated bank the applicant
which it is or issuing bank. must not be
available, or issued.
• that it is
available with
any bank
(freely
available).
Article 9

Deals with Advising Introduces the role of a

Bank’s responsibilities second Advising Bank
in advising a credit and
any amendment thereto
According to this article, Advising Bank should take
due care to pass on all the relevant information
received under a credit or amendment to the
beneficiary or second Advising Bank.
Article 10
If beneficiary notifies acceptance or rejection prior to
presentation date, the route to be followed is:
From second Advising Bank to From Advising Bank to Issuing
Advising Bank, or Bank
Clauses under Article 10 include:
Partial acceptance Imposing time limits for acceptance of
of an amendment rejection of amendments would be
is deemed to be disregarded.
notification of Example: “Unless beneficiary rejects this
rejection. amendment within seven days of this
amendment date, it will be deemed to
have been accepted.”
 Article 14
Article 14 spells out the standard for examination of
documents:
Time Limit
Time limit for a bank to
determine a complying
presentation is reduced
from seven to five banking
days following the day of
receipt of the documents.
An original transport
document subject to Articles
19 to 25 must be presented
not later than 21 days after
the shipment date.
Address
Addresses of the applicant or
beneficiary will be
acceptable, provided it is in
their respective countries.
Documents
Article 14 (k) widens the scope
beyond a transport document
to any document with a
shipper or consignor being
different from beneficiary.
Article 14 (l) allows any party,
including a freight forwarder,
non–vessel-operating
common carrier (NVOCC) to
issue a transport document if
it meets the requirements of
Articles 19 to 25.
Article 16
Article 16 deals with discrepant documents, waiver
and, notice.
Time Limit Alternatives
Discrepancies Action Indication by issuing bank that they are
must be according to holding documents until receipt of either of
advised in a instructions the following, whichever is earlier :
single notice previously • Applicant’s waiver and agreement to
of refusal received accept it
within five • Presenter’s instructions
banking days.
After refusal of documents and requesting
further instructions from the presenter or
seeking waiver, UCP 600 allows issuing bank
to return documents at any time. Discretion
has to be used while returning documents.
Article 19
Article 19 treats a transport document covering at least
two different modes of transport as a multimodal or
combined transport document. Its clauses include:
Signature Date of Shipment
When an agent signs “for or on This is the date of issuance of the
behalf of the master”, there is no transport document, unless the
need for the name of the master to transport document indicates, by
be quoted. This clause applies to all stamp or notation, a date of:
articles dealing with transport. • dispatch,
• taking in charge, or
• shipped on board.
This clause applies to all articles
dealing with transport documents.
Article 20
Article 20 makes no specific reference to a Bill of
Lading “covering a port-to-port shipment”. It includes
the following clauses:
Date of Shipment Port of Loading
The date of issuance of Bill of Lading This clause covers:
is the date of shipment. If there is an • “intended port of loading” or
“on-board notation” indicating a • cases in which the port of
date, then on-board notation date is loading stated in the credit does
the date of shipment. not appear in the corresponding
box on the Bill of Lading
and is quoted as:
o the “place of receipt” or
o similar phrases.
There is a requirement for a
suitable on-board notation.
Article 22
Article 22 is a new rule for UCP 600; it deals with the
signing of a Charter Party Bill of Lading by the charterer
or a named agent on behalf of the charterer. The
clauses included in this article are:
Charter Party Bills of Lading Charter Party Contracts
Charter Party Bills of Lading may Banks do not examine such
indicate a discharge port within a contracts even if these are required
range or geographical area of ports as to be presented by the terms of the
stated in the credit. credit.

These bills do not generally show the

name of a carrier. Hence, reference to
the same is omitted in UCP 600.
Article 23
Article 23 deals with air transport document:
The date of shipment is considered to be the date of issuance,
unless the air transport document contains a specific notation of the
actual date of shipment, in which case, the date stated in the
notation is deemed to be the date of shipment.
Any other information appearing It is a major change in UCP 600
on the air transport document to bring air transport documents
related to the flight number and in line with the other transport
date is not considered in documents.
determining the date of
shipment.
If there is a notation indicating a flight date, then this date is
considered as the date of shipment, even if such notation was not
required by the credit.
 Article 38
Article 38 deals with transferable credits. Its clauses
include:
Transferable Credit Presentation to the Transferring Bank
Under a “transferable” credit, no bank, According to Article 38 (k), documents
including a confirming bank or an issuing of the second beneficiary must be
bank, is under any obligation to transfer. routed through the transferring bank.
This article defines “Transferable Credit”,
“Transferring Bank”, and “Transferred This article prevents the documents
Credit”. from being directly delivered to the
issuing bank by bypassing the
An issuing bank may be a transferring transferring bank, thus denying
bank. substitution for the first beneficiary.
This article refers to the transferred credit,
accurately reflecting the terms and
conditions of the credit, that is, including
the confirmation.
Continuous Reading

This The original UCPDC 600 (ICC

presentation Publication) should be kept handy
is not UCPDC- and referred to in case of all LC-
600; a related work like issue, advising,
separate PDF confirming, scrutiny of documents,
file providing payments thereunder, and so on.
all the articles
is also given There are no short-cuts. The
for detailed original document alone is the
study. final authority.
Summary
In this presentation you learnt:
Some of the articles of UCPDC