Common Discrepancies in Letter of Credit: Experience from Selected Banks in Bangladesh

Abstract

Letter of Credit (LC) opening banks receive transport and other documents from the LC issuing Bank through banking channels. Upon receiving the information, bankers scrutinize the documents to determine if there is a deviation or discrepancy per the previously agreed terms and conditions. Based on the primary data from this study, forty-two discrepancies were identified. The discrepancies were grouped into four categories based on their nature. These are missing information, mismatched information, and non-submission of documents. The data were analyzed using the R Program and visualized with ggplot2. The study reveals that the most common discrepancy is mismatched information in warranty certificates. Most of the cases have only one discrepancy. The study also identified potential outliers, such as mismatched information in Currency, quality assurance certificate, and country of origin. Regression analysis shows that there is no significant relationship between the values of LC and the number of discrepancies.