ICC Digital Library Forum

Beneficiary's certificate certifying a set of the non-negotiable shipping documents have been despatched
to the applicant within 3 days of shipment is undated.

Is it a discrepancy for a certificate to be undated?

It is standard banking practice for any certificate to be signed and dated

CERTIFICATE DATE IS ITS ISSUING DATE ONLY

The date of a certificate indicates the date of issue of the certificate. It does not specify which date the required shipping documents are despatched. But the document checker is certain that the required shipping documents must have been despatched on or before that date of issue. With such inference, he can then determine whether this date of despatch is within the specified deadline date or not.

DATA CONTENT SHOWS DATE OF DESPATCH OF DOCUMENTS BUT NO DATE OF ISSUE

If the certificate has no date of issue but in its data content the date of despatch of the required shipping documents is stated, then the document checker can determine whether this date of despatch is complying or not directly, without the need for inference. In this case, although there is no date of issue of the certificate, it is still acceptable. A signature is however needed in a certificate according to the opinions of the ICC Banking Commission. Viewers may make use of the search facilities provided by the DC PRO to find out these opinions.

Documents must be examined with common sense, as said by the late Bernard Wheble. If a document presented fits the intent of the Applicant, it should be acceptable.

In our opinions, stating the actual date of despatch should be more precise than giving a date of issue of the document for inference purpose. Of course a certificate with both dates is perfect and no document examiner can reject it.

We are from http://www.tolee.com

[edited 7/11/01 5:08:26 PM]