Letter of credit documents checked against the credit before they go to the bank.

Today a credit reaches the exporter through its bank, and your documentation desk reads it before the cargo moves: the latest shipment date, the ports, the documents required and how many originals, the extra conditions, and the days allowed to present. After sailing, someone gathers the exporter's invoice and packing list, the bill of lading, the certificate of origin and any insurance document, and checks each one against the credit before the set goes to the bank. The Commerce Department's Trade Finance Guide describes the same step, with the forwarder or the exporter presenting, and the FMC lists sending documents to banks and advising exporters on letters of credit among freight forwarding services.

In the proof of concept, AI does that first check. It lists every term in the credit and marks each document against it, then compares the documents with one another: names, addresses, marks, quantities, weights, dates and the description of the goods. Each finding cites the clause and the page. Nothing is presented, signed or sent to a bank.

The credit's routing picks the rule. Under UCP 600, banks judge a presentation on the documents alone, and a transport document is examined under the article that fits the shipment the credit describes, not the title printed on it. The ICC Banking Commission's paper on on-board notations explains it through the SWIFT fields: a credit naming only a port of loading (44E) and a port of discharge (44F) points to a port-to-port document such as a bill of lading, while only a place of receipt (44A) and a place of final destination (44B) point to a multimodal, road or rail document. A bill showing receipt in Paris, loading in Rotterdam and discharge in Hong Kong, under a credit for Rotterdam to Hong Kong, is still checked as a bill of lading under Article 20. The check reads those fields first and names the article each transport document will be held to.

On board, and signed by whom. Article 20 wants the goods shown on board a named vessel at the credit's port of loading, by pre-printed wording or a dated on-board notation. The issue date counts as the shipment date unless a notation gives one, and a bill naming an "intended vessel" needs a notation with the actual vessel. Door-to-port bookings trip here: when a bill shows an inland place of receipt, ICC opinions have required a dated notation naming the vessel and the port of loading even on a pre-printed shipped-on-board form. Under FCA, Incoterms 2020 lets the parties agree that the buyer has its carrier issue an on-board bill to the seller. A clause declaring the goods or their packing defective makes a bill unclean, though the word clean never has to appear on it. Sub-article 14(l) lets a party other than the carrier issue the transport document, which covers a forwarder's house bill, but signing is a separate test the bill still has to pass.

The invoice has four fixed tests. Sub-article 18(a) has it appear issued by the beneficiary, made out to the applicant and in the credit's currency, and it need not be signed; under 18(c) its description must correspond with the credit's. The ICC's Technical Advisory Briefing No. 7, dated July 6, 2023, adds that a document titled simply invoice answers a call for a commercial invoice, while one marked provisional or pro-forma fails unless the credit allows it. Other documents may describe the goods in general terms that don't conflict with the credit, and data across the set need not be identical but must not conflict. A gross weight on the packing list that disagrees with the bill of lading, or shipping marks that differ between documents, is what the check lists, and your lead decides whether it is a conflict.

Three clocks run at once. Unless the credit sets its own period, a presentation with original transport documents must reach the bank within 21 calendar days after shipment and never after expiry. The insurance document may not be dated after shipment unless it shows cover starting by then, and the trade term changes what that document must say: under Incoterms 2020, CIF still defaults to the narrower Institute Cargo Clauses (C), while CIP now calls for Clauses (A). Once the bank has the set, it has at most five banking days after presentation to decide, and a refusal must come in a single notice by the close of the fifth banking day. The check puts the latest shipment date, the last day to present and the expiry at the top.

Your own name on the bill, and what your reviewer watches. FMC rules at 46 CFR 515.42 put the actual shipper in the shipper box of the bill of lading, with a forwarder's name there only as the shipper's agent, and 515.31 has a licensed intermediary print its FMC license number wherever its name appears on shipping documents. Census rules at 15 CFR 30.7 put the AES proof of filing citation or exemption legend on the first page of the bill, air waybill or other loading document. The FMC also has an intermediary that spots an error in a bill of lading or export declaration tell its principal promptly and stay out of that transaction until it is fixed, so the check reports and never edits. Your reviewer, the person who knows your export documentation best, usually the documentation lead, looks hardest at on-board notations, the presentation deadline, and conflicts between the invoice and the bill.

If your reviewer says yes, new credits go through the same job for about 30 days: a term list when the credit arrives, then a full check when the documents are in.

Each check waits for your documentation lead, who decides what to correct, what to present and when. The AI never presents, signs or changes a document, never files EEI or anything else, and never contacts an exporter, an importer, a carrier, a bank or CBP.

Live checks are graded the same way, against the success criteria written before the test.