Letter of credit

A letter of credit (LC), also known as a documentary credit or bankers commercial credit, or letter of undertaking (LoU), is a payment mechanism used in international trade to provide an economic guarantee from a creditworthy bank to an exporter of goods. Letters of credit are used extensively in the financing of international trade, where the reliability of contracting parties cannot be readily and easily determined. Its economic effect is to introduce a bank as an underwriter, where it assumes the credit risk of the buyer paying the seller for goods. A letter of credit (LC), also known as a documentary credit or bankers commercial credit, or letter of undertaking (LoU), is a payment mechanism used in international trade to provide an economic guarantee from a creditworthy bank to an exporter of goods. Letters of credit are used extensively in the financing of international trade, where the reliability of contracting parties cannot be readily and easily determined. Its economic effect is to introduce a bank as an underwriter, where it assumes the credit risk of the buyer paying the seller for goods. The letter of credit has been used in Europe since ancient times. Letters of credit were traditionally governed by internationally recognized rules and procedures rather than by national law. The International Chamber of Commerce oversaw the preparation of the first Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits (UCP) in 1933, creating a voluntary framework for commercial banks to apply to transactions worldwide. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, travelers commonly carried a circular letter of credit issued by a relationship bank, which allowed the beneficiary to withdraw cash from other banks along their journey. This type of letter of credit was eventually replaced by traveler's checks, credit cards and automated teller machines. Although letters of credit first existed only as paper documents, they were regularly issued by telegraph in the late 19th century, and by telex in the latter half of the 20th century. Beginning in 1973 with the creation of SWIFT, banks began to migrate to electronic data interchange as a means of controlling costs, and in 1983 the UCP was amended to allow 'teletransmission' of letters of credit. By the 21st century, the vast majority of LCs were issued in electronic form and entirely 'paperless' LCs were becoming more common.