9.2.1 How Does a Documentary Collection Work？跟单托收如...
If you are not sure of the importer’s creditworthiness,you may entrust somebody who is trustworthy to collect the money for you,instructing it not to release the title documents to the goods(bill of lading)among others until the importer satisfies a requirement,mostoften making the payment or signing a document promising to pay within a given time.The importer needs these documents for clearing customs for import and taking delivery and normally he/she would meet the requirement.But should the importer decide not to pay or take delivery,you retain the option of having the goods shipped back and losing just the freight instead of the total value of the goods.Another option is that you may find another customer for the goods.
This arrangement is called a documentary collection,or just“collection”for short.Under such an arrangement,the party that is entrusted is often a bank in the importer’s country,which acts on behalf of you to collect the money from the importer and is called the collecting bank.Theoretically,only this one bank is needed for such a service—you send the documents straight to this bank and ask it to represent you.But banks providing such a service normally want to make sure they are dealing with a legitimate exporter instead of an unknown foreign business,so,the collecting bank often uses another bank,one that it has dealt with in the past and that it trusts,as a conduit for transmitting the documents.This bank is often the correspondent bank of the collecting bank in the exporter’s country and called the remitting bank in a collection service.
So,a real-world documentary collection starts with you presenting the documents with a letter of instruction to the remitting bank which then forwards them to the collecting bank for collecting the money from the importer.The documents involved may roughly fall into two categories:commercial documents and financial documents.Commercial documents mostly relate to the merchandise,such as the commercial invoice,the bill of lading,the insurance policy(if necessary),etc.Of all the commercial documents,the bill of lading is the most critical,because it represents ownership of the goods.Financial documents,possibly a bill of exchange,a promissory note or a cheque,but mostly a bill of exchange—are used as instrument for collecting the money from the importer.A bill of exchange is an unconditional written order drawn by the exporter to the importer requiring the latter to pay immediately or make a firm commitment to pay in a fixed or determinable future date.
The collecting bank shall release the documents strictly following your letter of instruction,in which you can set forth the conditions for the importer to get hold of the documents,which can be of two types of option to you:“document against payment(D/P)”or “document against acceptance(D/A)”(see Figure 9-1).
Figure 9-1 Conditions for Releasing Documents
♦Option 1—document against payment（D/P）付款交单
You instruct the collecting bank NOT to release the documents to the importer until he/she makes cash payment.For this option,you may further choose between a D/P at sight or D/P after sight—whether you want the importer to pay immediately or grant him/her some credit terms.However,notably,D/P at sight is way better than D/P after sight in terms of security of payment.
♦Option 2—document against acceptance（D/A）承兑交单
You instruct the collecting bank NOT to release the documents to the importer until he/she promises to pay on a fixed or determinable future date.
So,in effect,you have three options under a collection arrangement—D/P at sight,D/P after sight and D/A,all of which can be achieved by asking the importer to sign a bill of exchange.From your point of view,D/P is better than D/A,and D/P at sight better than D/P after sight in terms of payment security.
In either D/P or D/A,you shall issue an order requesting the importer to pay—a bill of exchange.The importer then pays or promises to pay the bill.The document of title is released to the importer against payment or acceptance of the bill(see Figure 9-2).
The Uniform Rules for Collection(URC)developed by the International Chamber of Commerce(ICC)in Paris,is the internationally recognized codification of rules unifying banking practices regarding operations for documentary collections.
Figure 9-2 Workflow of Documentary Collection