The applicant requests the opening of the import L/C and is a customer of the issuing bank (bank using the application). Documents that are presented under the L/C show the applicant, unless defined differently in the conditions to the L/C.

The presenting party presents the issuing bank (the bank using the application) with the documents. The party can be a party to the L/C (such as the beneficiary, advising bank) or can be captured freely. The presenting party gives the issuing bank instructions on how payment is to be rendered, providing that the L/C has been issued payable at the issuing bank.

The reimbursing bank is one of the correspondence banks of the issuing bank. Usually, the issuing bank has accounts with the reimbursing bank in foreign currencies, which can be specified when the L/C is opened for the issuing bank in a foreign currency. The bank at which counter the L/C is available can reimburse on the reimbursing bank at maturity.

The 'Account with Bank' is the correspondence bank of one of the parties. It is specified, if the bank using the application does not have a direct account relationship with the party.

The L/C has been issued in favor of the beneficiary. This is the drawer of the documents and the party who (if not specified otherwise in the L/C) and presents the documents to the issuing bank either directly or via its housebank.

The carrier is the transporter of the goods and the drawer of the transport document.

This specifies the beneficiary's bank.

This party is not a party of the underlying foreign trade transaction.

It is required for internal operations of the application in order to secure the correct booking of liabilities, should the liability party be changed.

The payer is the party to be debitted, the party who pays for the set of documents. The payer can be a party to the L/C or can be captured manually.

The advising bank is usually the foreign corresponding bank of the issuing bank (the bank using the application) and is normally located in the beneficiary's country. It is normally also captured in the static data for the bank. This also includes details of the bank relevant to the account.

If the applicant specifies the applicant's bank in the opening request, but the issuing bank works together with another bank in the country of the beneficiary, the applicant's bank can be entered as the 2nd advising bank. In this case the issuing bank sends the L/C to their correspondence bank (1st advising bank) and instructs that correspondence bank to advise the L/C to the beneficiary via the 2nd advising bank.

If there is a separate initiating institute, it can be entered here. In most cases, the initiating institute is the principal bank of the applicant, which has no foreign trade business.

With Asian banks, it is often the case that the issuing bank has sold its receivables from the applicant's bank when documents in an Import L/C are transferred. The procedure is documented by attaching a 'sticker' to the letter accompanying the documents. This sticker basically means that payment is to be made to another bank not previously mentioned in the contract (a sticker bank). Any other subsequent correspondence is sent to the presenter.