Shipping Guarantee

A shipping guarantee is issued by Standard Charted Bank on the customer instruction when the vessel carrying the goods arrives earlier than the original bill of lading, which requires the customer to clear the goods or face the possibility of incurring demurrage charges.

Under such circumstances, the shipping documents may still be in transit to Standard Charted Bank or may have been lost in transit. If the goods were transported by air, Standard Charted Bank would issue Delivery Orders to authorize the release of goods at the airport.

Shipping Guarantees are typically only issued when Standard Charted Bank is the LC Issuing Bank, in which case the Bill of Lading should be consigned "to order" and blank endorsed or consigned to the order of Standard Charted Bank.

Benefits

The customer will be able to clear the goods before receipt of the original shipping documents thus avoiding demurrage charges

Bank Requirements

A Shipping Guarantee Application on the Standard Charted Bank's standard form which incorporates a counter indemnity should be submitted together with the shipping company's agency indemnity form in duplicate

An undertaking to accept all the discrepancies, if the shipping guarantee is issued against a Letter of Credit, once the documents are received along with an authority to debit the customer account

An undertaking to return the original guarantee duly discharged by the beneficiary (carrier) upon receipt of original bill of lading

Copy of related commercial invoice and Bills of Lading should be presented along with the Shipping Guarantee form. In the absence of invoices, alternative documents such as insurance policies should be used to determine the value of the goods.