Useful information

The simple and economic way to make international trade payments

Once international trading partners have built up a degree of trust in one another, they may choose to settle their transactions by documentary collection. Import and export documentary collections are more economic than documentary credits, because the bank is simply acting as the collection agent, rather than providing an undertaking to effect payment. We have extensive experience in both import and export documentary collections, working with customers and their banks in all parts of the world.

The key benefits

• Signifies a relationship of trust that may allow for improved terms in other areas of the transaction – enabling you to negotiate better prices for longer credit terms, for instance.
• Simplicity – the bank collects payment against bills of exchange and / or documents of title after goods are shipped.
• Suitable for regular transactions between partners who trust each other – or parents and subsidiaries within a corporate group.

Features and benefits

• Exporters can use documentation to control title to the goods.
• Choice of categories offered:

Standard export documentary collections see us handle the documents on behalf of exporters.

Direct documentary collections see us follow up on payment to the collecting bank once the customer has sent them the documents.

Import documentary collections see us handle the documents on behalf of importers.

For further information on import and export collections: