Each of these is issued by a licensed bank, trade finance house, or registered entity in our network — we structure the request and place it, we don't issue it ourselves.
A Letter of Credit is one of the oldest tools in cross-border trade for a simple reason: it removes the need for either party to trust the other blindly. The issuing bank promises to pay your supplier once the agreed shipping documents are presented — payment is tied to performance, not to your word alone.
We're most often asked for these when a buyer is opening a new supplier relationship in a market where local recourse is limited, or when a supplier's own bank requires assurance before releasing goods.
A Standby Letter of Credit works in reverse from a commercial LC: it's a fallback, drawn only if you fail to pay or perform as agreed. Under normal circumstances it never gets touched — it simply sits behind the contract as evidence that the obligation is backed by a bank, not just a signature.
Because it doesn't interrupt your existing payment terms, an SBLC is often the lighter-touch option when a counterparty needs comfort but you'd rather not restructure how you already pay or get paid.
A Bank Guarantee is a bank's direct promise to pay a beneficiary if you don't meet a contractual obligation — non-delivery, non-payment, or a breach of agreed terms. It lets a counterparty commit to a deal without absorbing the risk of your default themselves.
These are common wherever a contract is large enough, or a relationship new enough, that "we'll pay you back" isn't sufficient on its own — construction subcontracts, distribution agreements, and cross-border supply deals all lean on them.
A Performance Guarantee (or performance bond) backs your commitment to complete a contract to the agreed specification and timeline. For public tenders and large private contracts, it's frequently a qualifying requirement before you're even considered — no bond, no bid.
We work through the tender documents with you to size the bond correctly and place it with an issuer whose paper the awarding body will actually accept, rather than discovering a mismatch after the deadline has passed.
Tell us about the deal — we'll tell you what the counterparty is actually asking for.
