Field 48 (‘Period for presentation in days’) in Letter of Credit (L/C)

F48 is an optional field in MT700 swift message of Documentary letter of credit.

F48 (Period of Presentation) field defines the period of time in calendar days by which the presentation of documents should be made in the negotiating bank. The beneficiary will do the presentation/negotiation to get the payment.

From the F44C(Latest Date of Shipment), the countdown will start. Normally the period is up to the LC expiry date mentioned in F31D(Date and Place of Expiry).

The date can be mentioned 7,10,14,21 any days as agreed between buyer and seller but not later than the LC expiry date.

If the field is not mentioned in the documentary credit then a default of 21 days is considered. But must not exceed the expiry date as I told you earlier.

Within this presentation period, the beneficiary submits negotiable documents mentioned in 46A(Documents Required) to the presenting bank as per instruction in F41D or F41A(Available With..By…)

As a common practice, LC  validity is kept 90days (one quarter) to maintain the same charge. In that case, the latest date of shipment is mentioned as 69 days. The presentation period is 21 days if there’s no specific requirement from the buyer or seller.

The presentation can be both Electronic records or paper documents.

Do you have any thoughts about this? let me know in the comments.