User's handbook for documentary credits under UCP 600

Users' Handbook for Documentary Credits under UCP 600 is designed to serve as an introduction to users of documentary credits, that is, to sellers and buyers who seek to increase their access to cross-border markets. It strives to demonstrate the way commercial parties and bankers have used this remarkable commercial device, the documentary credit, to achieve their objectives. Users' Handbook is in five parts :

• Part One is a brief discussion of international sales and transport.
• Part Two explains the banking industry's crucial role in documentary credit transactions and illustrates many of the transactions in which commercial parties utilize the documentary credit.
• Part Three explains the way documents control the payment function of the documentary credit.
• Part Four introduces the all-important feature of the documentary credit - the ways it opens financing options to sellers, which can then extend credit to buyers.
• Part Five introduces the standby credit and illustrates its role in cross-border transactions.

Users' Handbook also contains a handy glossary of international trade terms for easy reference. UCP 600, the latest version of ICC's universally used rules on documentary credits, Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits, is included as an appendix.

The International Chamber of Commerce, the World Business Organization, based in Paris, is the global leader in the development of standards, rules and reference guides for international trade.