Page 198 - A Banker Down the Rabbit Hole

was mentioned "Sulphur-only traces found" in Certificate of Analysis of
Quality.

We had studied and had been taught in training as well as in the field
operations that we had to strictly match the documents as per terms of
LC and could not presume something like the 'traces of Sulphur' in the
quality certificate to be upto 0.2% unless it is specified to be "0.2%" or
less. I tried to check from various online resources whether "Traces" had
been defined equivalent to some specific percentage range or some other
equivalent. I could not find that. Moreover, while studying my 'M. Sc.-
Chemistry' also I did not have any such learning.

Going by what was considered above, I decided to point this as a
discrepancy in the 'Certificate of Analysis of Quality' and hence
documents not as per LC. I kept awake for major part of the night but
was very satisfied on the result of my thorough checking of the LC
documents. I was sure that there was some dispute between the buyer
and seller resulting into such extra caution on part of the buyer, our
customer. Had I not double checked the documents, the customer would
have pointed this as a discrepancy and refused documents repudiating
their liability for the amount paid by us to the negotiating bank through
TT reimbursement as per LC.

Now after one sleepless night, I was waiting eagerly to meet my
colleagues for other round of consultations to confirm my view of the
discrepancy. We met and discussed and unanimously agreed to point this
out as a discrepancy in documents and inform the negotiating bank about
the same. However, we advised the applicant of LC, our customer about
the state of discrepancy found and requested them to decide to accept
or reject the documents. They immediately conveyed the rejection and
we in turn advised the Negotiating Bank in India, a very big bank in India
within the stipulated period of seven working days from the day of receipt
of documents that the documents were discrepant.

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