In day-to-day documentary credit work, seemingly small details—dates on insurance documents or wording in transport clauses—can lead to real examination dilemmas. A reader recently sent three practical questions that many trade finance practitioners have probably encountered at least once. Question Dear Mr. Old Man, Greetings of the day. I hope you are doing well. May I ask for your views …

In today’s LC practice, two issues appear repeatedly and often cause confusion for both exporters and bankers. The first is whether an invoice under CIF or CFR must show a cost breakdown, especially the insurance premium. Many presentations include partial breakdowns—or even show freight as zero—raising the question of whether such invoices are compliant when the LC itself is silent. …

A practical Q&A with Mr. Old Man Intro In trade finance, insurance documents often come with wording that looks simple but can cause uncertainty at the time of document examination. Priya recently wrote to ask about two common issues: the meaning of an insurance “attaching after” cut-off date, and whether the signer’s capacity must be explicitly identified. Let’s take a …

Dear Mr. Old Man, Greetings of the day. Hope this email finds you well. I would like to seek your opinion/clarification for the below scenario. All these doubts pertain to the insurance document presented under a Letter of Credit (LC). Query 1 LC Requirement: Insurance in negotiable form and blank endorsed. Scenario: The insurance document shows the assured as the …

Intro: Sometimes a small wording twist in an insurance document can spark big compliance headaches. One reader recently asked whether an insurance policy showing both the beneficiary and the issuing bank as insured parties meets LC requirements. Let’s see what Mr. Old Man has to say. QUESTION Dear Mr. Old Man, Warm greetings. I hope this message finds you well. …

In documentary credit practice, few phrases cause as much confusion as “all originals must be presented.” This Q&A looks at what happens when an insurance policy under LC says “3 originals issued” — and why missing even one can turn a clean presentation into a discrepancy. QUESTION Dear Mr. Old Man, We issued an LC with a condition that one …

QUESTION Dear Sir I read a lot of your information on your website and learnt a lot through it. I am Arihant Sethia from India working in company called Swastik Interchem pvt ltd and recently we had exported some material to Nepal. In the letter of credit in section, 46A-subsection 6 we were asked to issue negotiable insurance or certificate …

Special Q&A with comments from TSU editors who are international experts on letters of credit. It may be published in the next issue of LC Monitor/Trade Services Update. QUESTION Dear Mr. Old Man, This is Phoebe. I’ve been your follower since 2021 when I started to work in the import-export industry, and firstly I’d like to say thank you for …