UCP 600 has 39 articles. If you're an exporter preparing documents, about 10 of them will directly affect whether you get paid. The rest matter — they govern how banks interact with each other, how credits are transferred, what happens when force majeure strikes — but they're the bank's problem, not yours.
This isn't the comprehensive guide. It's the practical one. These are the articles that will actually show up in your discrepancy notices.
Article 2 — Definitions
Not exciting, but essential. Article 2 defines what "complying presentation" means, what "honour" means, what "negotiation" means. The one that catches people is the definition of "banking day" — a day on which a bank is regularly open at the place where an act subject to the rules is to be performed. Not a calendar day. Not your banking day. The bank's banking day, at their location.
This matters when you're counting presentation deadlines or waiting for a bank to examine documents. Five banking days in London and five banking days in Dhaka are not the same thing.
Article 5 — Documents, Not Goods
Short article. Enormous consequence. Banks deal with documents, not with goods, services, or performance. The bank doesn't care whether you shipped the right goods, whether the buyer is happy, whether the cargo arrived intact. The bank cares whether your documents comply with the LC terms.
This cuts both ways. If your documents are perfect and the goods are defective, the bank still pays. If your goods are perfect and your documents have a typo, the bank can refuse. Document compliance is the entire game.
Article 14 — Standard for Examination of Documents
The article you'll encounter most. Article 14 gives banks five banking days to examine documents and decide whether they comply. It establishes that documents must be examined on their face — the bank isn't investigating whether statements in the documents are true, just whether they're consistent with the LC.
Article 14(c) is the one that bites: documents must be presented no later than 21 calendar days after shipment, and in any event not later than the expiry date of the LC. If your LC has a shorter presentation period in Field 48, that overrides the 21-day default.
Article 14(d) says data in documents doesn't need to be identical but must not conflict. This is the standard examiners apply when comparing your invoice to your packing list to your BoL. They're not looking for perfect matches — they're looking for contradictions. But in practice, "not conflicting" is a narrow line, and different examiners draw it in different places.
Article 16 — Discrepant Documents
When the bank finds discrepancies, Article 16 governs what happens next. The bank must give a single notice of refusal, by the end of the fifth banking day after presentation, listing all discrepancies. One notice. All discrepancies. If the bank doesn't refuse within this window, it's deemed to have honoured the presentation.
This is actually a protection for you. Banks can't drip-feed discrepancies — find one today, another tomorrow, a third next week. They get one shot. If they miss the deadline, you get paid.
In practice, this means the first few days after you present documents are tense. No news is good news, but you won't know for certain until day five has passed.
Article 18 — Commercial Invoice
The most frequently cited article in discrepancy notices. Article 18(c) requires the goods description on the commercial invoice to correspond with the description in the LC. Not "be consistent with" — correspond. This is the strictest matching standard in UCP 600.
Every other document can use a general description that doesn't conflict with the LC. The invoice must mirror it. If the LC says "premium unroasted Arabica coffee beans, origin Colombia, crop year 2024," your invoice must say exactly that. Not "Colombian Arabica coffee" or "unroasted coffee beans, Grade A."
Article 18 also requires the invoice to be made out in the name of the applicant (the buyer) as specified in the LC, and the invoice amount must not exceed the LC amount. Overdraws are an automatic discrepancy, tolerance or not, if the total exceeds Field 32B.
Article 20 — Bill of Lading
Long, detailed, and full of requirements that each independently generate discrepancies. The BoL must indicate the carrier's name, be signed by the carrier or master or their agent, indicate the port of loading and discharge stated in the LC, and show the goods have been shipped on board a named vessel.
"Shipped on board" is critical. A BoL that says "received for shipment" without a separate on-board notation is not compliant. The on-board date is the shipment date for the purposes of your presentation deadline calculation.
Transshipment clauses, deck cargo notations, "said to contain" qualifications — Article 20 addresses all of these. If your trade involves ocean shipment, this article is worth reading in full more than once.
Article 28 — Insurance Document and Coverage
If the LC requires insurance, Article 28 specifies what the document must show: the types of risks covered, the currency (same as the LC), and the minimum amount — typically 110% of the CIF or CIP value.
The insurance document must be dated no later than the shipment date, unless it's evident that cover was effective prior to shipment. And the coverage must be issued by an insurance company or underwriter, not by a broker.
A common mistake: the LC requires "all risks" coverage. The insurance certificate lists specific risks but doesn't include the phrase "all risks." Even if the listed risks are comprehensive, the omission of the exact wording can be flagged.
Article 30 — Tolerance in LC Amount, Quantity, and Unit Price
The tolerance article. If the LC uses words like "about" or "approximately" in relation to the amount, quantity, or unit price, a 10% tolerance applies. Even without those words, Article 30(a) allows a 5% tolerance on quantity for goods not sold by count — but only if the total value doesn't exceed the LC amount.
This is one of the most misunderstood articles. Exporters assume tolerance gives them room to ship more and invoice more. It gives you room to ship slightly more or less, but your invoice total is still capped at Field 32B. Shipping 5% more and invoicing 5% more will result in an overdraw.
Article 31 — Partial Drawings and Shipments
Partial shipments are allowed unless the LC specifically says otherwise. This catches people who assume they need the full quantity in one shipment. If the LC is silent on partial shipments, you're allowed to split.
But be careful about what constitutes "partial." Multiple sets of transport documents covering shipment from the same port on the same vessel on the same date are not treated as partial shipment. Understanding the distinction matters when you're splitting cargo across containers.
Article 32 — Instalment Drawings or Shipments
If the LC specifies shipment in instalments by defined dates, and you miss one instalment, the LC ceases to be available for that instalment and all subsequent ones. This is one of the harshest rules in UCP 600.
Article 31 is forgiving. Article 32 is not. If your LC has an instalment schedule, treat every date as a cliff edge.
What's not on this list
I've left out articles on transferable credits (Article 38), assignment of proceeds (Article 39), and force majeure (Article 36). They matter, but they're situational. The ten articles above are the ones you'll deal with on virtually every LC.
If you take one thing from this: read your LC field by field, and when something feels ambiguous, find the relevant UCP article before you assume you know the answer. The rule is almost never what you'd expect it to be based on common sense alone.
David Berney is the founder of SmartLC, a trade finance platform for managing the Letter of Credit lifecycle. He builds software for the people who actually prepare, check, and present trade documents.