보증신용장거래에서 지급청구의 문제점에 관한 고찰

Improper Demand of Payment in Standby Letter of Credit Transactions

Documentary credits have been used as one of the most useful payment methods in international trade. Standby letter of credits are using as surety devices in various global business transactions including sale of goods. Standby letter of credits have lots of merits but simultaneously have high possibility of improper demand by the beneficiary due to the characteristics of the documents required. The purpose of this article is to suggest the countermeasures of problems relating to the improper demand by the beneficiary in standby letter of credit transaction. For this purpose, the author examined the nature and characteristic of the performance to ay by the issuing bank. From the result of the analysis, two major problems are become clear, one is that there is high possibility of improper demand by the beneficiary and the other is that the issuing bank bears too much risk. The countermeasures of these problems are as follows. Firstly, for preventing improper demand, it needs to insert special condition such as notice of demand clause in the standby letter of credit and to strengthen the document requirements to present default statement made by someone other than beneficiary. Secondly, if the demand turns out improper, the issuing bank could refuse to pay by its own decision or by the court’s injunction. Thirdly, to guarantee reimbursement from the applicant, the issuing bank may request to pay the credit amount in advance. Finally, to diversify the risk of the issuing bank, the issuing bank may sell participations to another bank. And using bank-up credits and multibank credits could reduce the risk of which the issuing bank bears.