ISBP 821 is the International Chamber of Commerce publication International Standard Banking Practice for the Examination of Documents under UCP 600. It does not replace UCP 600; it explains how the UCP 600 articles are applied in day-to-day document examination, covering matters such as how goods descriptions are read, how dates and signatures are treated, and how consignee and notify details on transport documents are checked.

UCP 600 checks

The 97 UCP 600 and ISBP 821 checks we run

Q: How are findings graded?

Each finding is graded blocker, major, minor or advisory. A blocker is a discrepancy a bank would be entitled to refuse the presentation on. A major is a material inconsistency that commonly draws a refusal notice under Article 16. A minor is a smaller defect that may or may not be raised. An advisory is not a discrepancy but is worth knowing before presenting.

All 97 checks the engine runs on a Letter of Credit presentation, with the UCP 600 article, ISBP 821 practice or SWIFT field each comes from — plus any additional conditions your own credit sets out in field 47A, which are examined as well and cannot be listed in advance. Findings are graded blocker, major, minor or advisory.

Your document files stay on your device. Document files are read in your browser and are never uploaded to or stored by us. The checks themselves run on our servers, on the data fields read from your documents — amounts, dates, party names. If you anchor the result, only a one-way SHA-256 hash of the bundle is written to the XRP Ledger as evidence of what was examined.

Credit structure and undertaking — UCP 600 Articles 1 to 16

Check	Reference
Scope of the rules	Art. 1
Credits versus contracts	Art. 4
Documents versus goods, services or performance	Art. 5
Availability and expiry	Art. 6
Place of presentation	Art. 6
Issuing bank undertaking	Art. 7
Advising bank	Art. 9
Complying presentation	Art. 15
Discrepant documents, waiver and notice	Art. 16
LC field completeness (structural)	structural

Examination rules — UCP 600 Articles 14 and 17

Check	Reference
Standard for examination — data consistency	Art. 14
21-day presentation period	Art. 14(c)
Original documents and copies	Art. 17
Shipper or consignor need not be the beneficiary	Art. 14(k)
Other documents required by the credit	Art. 14(f)
Number of originals and copies presented	Field 46A
Every message of the credit presented — MT700 and its MT701 continuation	Field 27

Commercial documents

Check	Reference
Commercial invoice	Art. 18
Insurance documents and cover	Art. 28
Insurance amount and percentage of cover	Art. 28(f)
Packing list	practice
Certificate of origin	practice
Bank presentation letter	practice
Invoice issued by the beneficiary, addressed to the applicant	Art. 18(a)
Packing list arithmetic — weights, quantities and totals	practice
Packing list against the documents required	Field 46A
Draft or bill of exchange	Field 42C
Invoice arithmetic — line totals, subtotal and the amount claimed	Art. 18 · Art. 14(d)
References and certification the credit requires on the invoice	Fields 46A / 47A
Brand, make or mark named in the credit shown on the invoice	Art. 18(c) · ISBP 821
Charges billed on the invoice against the credit's charges instruction	Field 71
Certificate of origin — identity, title and completeness	ISBP 821 L1–L2
Certificate of origin against the form, language and wording the credit stipulates	Fields 46A / 47A
Certificate of origin — issuing authority and signature	ISBP 821 L1 · L3
Certificate of origin — the country of origin certified	ISBP 821 L7
Certificate of origin — the goods it certifies and any schedule it refers to	ISBP 821 L1 · L4
Certificate of origin — exporter, consignor and consignee	ISBP 821 L5–L6
Certificate of origin — invoice references, dates and shipment data	ISBP 821 L8
Certificate of origin against the other documents presented	Art. 14(a) · Art. 14(d)

Transport documents — UCP 600 Articles 19 to 27

Check	Reference
Transport document present for the mode of carriage	Arts. 19–25
Multimodal or combined transport document	Art. 19
Bill of lading	Art. 20
Non-negotiable sea waybill	Art. 21
Charter party bill of lading	Art. 22
Air transport document	Art. 23
Air waybill — date of issue or the actual date of shipment	Art. 23(a)(iii) · ISBP 821 H8
Air waybill — airport of departure and of destination	Art. 23(a)(iv) · ISBP 821 H9
Air waybill — the original for the consignor or shipper	Art. 23(a)(v) · ISBP 821 H12
Air waybill — transhipment and the one-air-waybill exception	Art. 23(b)–(c)
Air waybill against the documents required	Fields 46A/47A
Road, rail or inland waterway transport documents	Art. 24
Courier receipt, post receipt or certificate of posting	Art. 25
Carrier identified and the document signed	Arts. 19–20
Clean transport document — no adverse clause	Art. 27
On deck, shipper’s load and count, and charges	Art. 26
Charter party indication on the bill of lading	Art. 20
Multimodal document covering the whole carriage	Art. 19
Bill of lading against the documents required	Field 46A
Consignee against the credit’s instructions	Field 46A
Notify party against the credit’s instructions	Field 46A
Applicant details on the transport document	practice
Freight terms on the transport document	practice
Vessel the credit names shown on the transport document	Field 46A · Art. 14(d)

Amounts, quantities and drawings — UCP 600 Articles 29 to 32

Check	Reference
Extension of expiry date or last day for presentation	Art. 29
Tolerance in credit amount, quantity and unit prices	Art. 30
Partial drawings or shipments	Art. 31
Instalment drawings or shipments	Art. 32
Quantity and unit price against the credit	Art. 30
Additional amounts covered	Field 39C

Disclaimers, transfer and assignment — UCP 600 Articles 34 to 39

Check	Reference
Disclaimer on effectiveness of documents	Art. 34
Disclaimer on transmission and translation	Art. 35
Force majeure	Art. 36
Acts of an instructed party	Art. 37
Transferable credits	Art. 38
Assignment of proceeds	Art. 39
Third-party or transferred-credit invoice issuer	Art. 38 · Field 47A

ISBP 821 practice and cross-document consistency

Check	Reference
Cross-document consistency	ISBP 821
Date consistency across the set	ISBP 821
Currency consistency	ISBP 821
Goods description corresponds to the credit	ISBP 821
Incoterm consistency	ISBP 821
Consignee and notify party details	ISBP 821
On-board notation	ISBP 821
Signatures and stamps	ISBP 821
Country of origin stated consistently	ISBP 821
Payment tenor matches the credit	ISBP 821
Ports and places against the credit	ISBP 821
Currency used consistently within a document	ISBP 821
Cargo data agrees across the set	ISBP 821
Routing and place identity	ISBP 821
Corrections and alterations	ISBP 821
Goods description across the documents	Art. 14(e) · ISBP 821

Document reading and screening

These do not come from UCP 600 or ISBP 821. They report on how well the set could be read and on what the stated route and places look like — a presentation examined from a poor scan is not the same evidence as one examined from clean text, and the report says so.

Check	Reference
Reading confidence on scanned documents	reading
Date reading and format ambiguity	reading
Route and place screening	screening
Duplicate documents in the presentation	screening
Page continuity — every page of each document present	reading

Common questions

What counts as a discrepancy under UCP 600?

A discrepancy is any point where the documents presented do not comply with the terms of the credit, the applicable UCP 600 articles, or international standard banking practice. Under Article 14, banks examine documents on their face to decide whether they appear to constitute a complying presentation, and data in a document must not conflict with data in any other stipulated document or with the credit itself. Common examples are an invoice amount exceeding the credit amount, a goods description that does not correspond to the credit, a presentation made after the 21-day period in Article 14(c), a missing on-board notation, and inconsistent dates or currencies across documents.

What is ISBP 821?

ISBP 821 is the International Chamber of Commerce publication International Standard Banking Practice for the Examination of Documents under UCP 600. It does not replace UCP 600; it explains how the articles are applied in day-to-day document examination — how goods descriptions are read, how dates and signatures are treated, and how consignee and notify details on transport documents are checked.

Why do banks reject letters of credit?

Banks do not reject the credit itself; they refuse the presentation of documents made under it. The refusal is for discrepancies found on examination — documents that conflict with each other or with the credit, documents presented after the expiry or presentation period, invoices drawn for more than the credit permits, transport documents missing required notations, or insurance cover below the required percentage. Industry estimates commonly put the first-presentation discrepancy rate in the region of 70 to 80 percent, which is why a pre-submission check matters.

How are findings graded?

Each finding is graded blocker (a discrepancy a bank would be entitled to refuse on), major (a material inconsistency that commonly draws a refusal notice under Article 16), minor (a smaller defect that may or may not be raised), or advisory (not a discrepancy, but worth knowing before presenting).

A note on accuracy. These checks are automated and their result is an estimate, not a guarantee of bank acceptance — the bank still runs its own formal examination. UCP 600 and ISBP 821 are publications of the International Chamber of Commerce; paper-chain.io is independent of the ICC and is document checking software, not a bank, and does not advise on or arrange finance.

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