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Language of Documents

02/03/2018

A documentary credit included the condition: "ALL DOCUMENTS MUST BE PRESENTED IN ENGLISH, IF ANY DOCUMENT PRESENTED IS NOT IN ENGLISH WE SHALL FORWARD THE PRESENTATION TO ISSUING BANK ON APPROVAL BASIS."

 

The bill of exchange was pre-printed in Spanish and the data for the amount, the maturity date, the number of the credit and the name of the drawee printed in English.

 

The confirming bank refused the documents due to "DRAFT PRESENTED IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE".

 

  • Should or should not a draft be considered as "other documents" under UCP 600 sub-article 14 (f)?
  • Should we consider the discrepancy of the document not being issued in English to be correct, when the sections were filled out in English, but the parts not in the stated language were part of the pre-printed draft?

 

ICC Opinion R730 (TA703rev) Analysis

For the purposes of a clause such as "all documents must be issued in English", a draft is not to be considered as one of those required documents unless the credit requires the presentation of a draft drawn on the applicant under "documents required".

 

A draft is to be examined to the extent required by the terms and conditions of the credit, the UCP and applicable local law.

 

Previous ICC Opinions, R564 and R654, have addressed this same issue. The conclusion to each of these Opinions stated: "The stipulation in the credit that 'all required documents must be issued in English' relates to the data thereon that would evidence compliance with the terms of the credit and the relevant provision(s) of the UCP."

 

The clause stated to appear in the additional conditions field of the credit would not appear to have been written by the issuing bank. If the confirming bank has altered or added the wording in conveying the text of the issuing bank's credit, it has not acted according to sub-article 9 (b) of UCP 600. In any event, the confirming bank must honour or negotiate if the documents are complying. The confirming bank may add conditions to its advice of confirmation, but not to the text of the credit as received from the issuing bank.

 

ICC Opinion R730 (TA703rev) Conclusion

The draft was acceptable as issued and presented.

In any event, the data inserted in the respective segments of the draft was in English; there was no discrepancy.

 

See opinion R730 (TA.703rev) for the full transcript of the above.

 

 

 

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