What are the Differences Between Confirming Bank and Nominated Bank?

In theory, it is possible that a nominated bank and a confirming bank are present as two separate banks in a letter of credit transaction.

But in reality it occurs very seldom, mainly because of the fact that confirming banks do not add their confirmations to letters of credit, which are not available by themselves.

The roles and responsibilities of the nominated bank and the confirming bank are significantly different. For this reason, exporters and importers need to understand the key distinctions between these two banks.

On this post, you can find not only the definition of a nominated bank and a confirming bank according to letter of credit rules, but also how they differ from each other.

What are the Differences Between Advising Bank and Nominated Bank?

In most cases, the advising bank and the nominated bank is the same institution in a typical letter of credit transaction.

Only in rare occasions, these two banks are apart from each other.

Because, there are significant differences exist between the advising bank and the nominated bank, each side of the transaction, both exporters and importers, should understand the roles and responsibilities of these two banks very well.

On this post, you can find not only the definition of advising bank and nominated bank according to letter of credit rules, but also the main differences between these two banks.

Differences Between Advising Bank and Nominated Bank

Nominated Bank

On this article you can find the definition of a nominated bank, its roles and responsibilities in a typical letter of credit transaction.

Definition: According to current letter of credit rules, UCP 600, nominated bank means the bank with which the credit is available or any bank in the case of a credit available with any bank.

Nominated bank has two main functions under a letter of credit transaction.

Firstly, a nominated bank is the presentation point of the documents. As a result, a beneficiary complete its presentation by submitting documents to the counter's of the nominated bank within the time frame indicated in the letter of credit.

Secondly, a nominated bank may act as a discounting bank by purchasing a time draft or documents that have been submitted by the beneficiary and found to be complying by the nominated bank.

Nominated Bank

After briefly defining what nominated bank is and explaining its functions, now we can look further into different aspects of nominated bank.

Letter of Credit Basics: Parties to Letters of Credit

Letter of credit is a payment method in international trade. It is usually shortened as L/C or DLC. DLC means Documentary Letter of Credit or Documentary Credit. 

As of yesterday, I have started to write down a new series of articles regarding letters of credit. The 1st article was about the definition and types of letters of credit.  

Today, on this article, I will try to introduce you the parties to a simple letter of credit transaction. Each L/C party will be presented briefly and its role will be explained with the help of the graphic images. 

In a typical letter of credit transaction, one should expect to see following parties: applicant, beneficiary, issuing bank, confirming bank, nominated bank and reimbursing bank.

Let us start understanding these parties along with their roles and responsibilities one by one below.