Extract data from letters of credit

A documentary letter of credit lets a buyer and a seller who do not trust each other trade anyway, by putting a bank in the middle. In that arrangement the buyer's bank, the issuing bank, promises to pay the seller once the seller presents documents that prove the goods were shipped as agreed, and by the ICC Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits (UCP 600) the banks deal in those documents rather than in the goods themselves. A trade-finance officer, an exporter's documentation team, and a shipping agent all read the same credit for the same terms: which bank issued it and under whose SWIFT code, who the applicant (the buyer) and the beneficiary (the seller) are, the amount and currency available, whether the credit is irrevocable and confirmed, the latest shipment date and the expiry for presentation, and the exact list of documents the beneficiary must present to be paid. Because a single discrepancy in those documents can stop payment, the terms have to be read exactly. Two things are operative: the documents-required list and the dates. Every credit spells out each document the beneficiary must present, a signed commercial invoice, a full set of clean on-board ocean bills of lading, a packing list, a certificate of origin, an insurance certificate for a stated percentage of value, and a presentation that omits or misstates any of them is a discrepancy the bank can refuse. Three clocks run at once: the latest shipment date, the expiry date, and the presentation period, while the Incoterms basis and the ports of loading and discharge fix the shipment, and the schedule of charges says which party bears the issuing, advising, and confirmation fees. Adding a confirming bank changes who the beneficiary looks to for payment, since that bank gives its own undertaking. Talonic reads the letter of credit into a structured record that keeps the banks, the parties, the amount, and the document conditions distinct. An irrevocable, confirmed credit numbered LC-2026-IMP-0912, issued by First Commerce Bank, N.A. for applicant Atlantic Import Partners Inc. in favour of Rheinland Maschinenbau GmbH for $485,000.00, expiring 2026-09-30 with a latest shipment date of 2026-09-10, returns its required documents, its charge allocation, and two priced lines of $420,000.00 and $65,000.00 that foot to the credit amount under issuing bank SWIFT code FCBKUS33, so a trade-finance team works the credit from fields rather than a scanned SWIFT print.

What gets extracted from letters of credit

How extraction works for letters of credit

Letters of credit reach a trade-finance desk as issuing-bank advices, SWIFT MT700 prints, and scanned copies, and the operative terms are spread across banks, parties, dates, and a documents list. Talonic classifies the credit and maps each value to the documentary-credit field set held in the Field Registry, which separates the issuing, advising, and confirming banks, the applicant and beneficiary, the amount and currency, and the document conditions rather than one block of prose. Whether the credit is revocable, irrevocable, or confirmed is read from the source, the issuing bank SWIFT code and the parties are captured, and the latest shipment date, the expiry, the Incoterms basis, and the ports of loading and discharge are parsed. Each required document is returned as its own item, the schedule of charges keeps which party bears each fee, and any line items are checked to foot to the credit amount. Per-value confidence and a pixel-region pointer under DIN SPEC 91491 let a documentation officer verify a document condition or an expiry date against the source. The extraction structures what the credit states and does not determine whether a presentation complies, which is the bank determination under UCP 600.

Sample extraction

An irrevocable, confirmed documentary letter of credit

{
  "document_number": "LC-2026-IMP-0912",
  "document_date": "2026-06-05",
  "effective_date": "2026-06-05",
  "expiration_date": "2026-09-30",
  "issuing_bank.name": "First Commerce Bank, N.A.",
  "issuing_bank.swift_code": "FCBKUS33",
  "advising_bank.name": "Deutsche Handelsbank AG",
  "confirming_bank.name": "Deutsche Handelsbank AG",
  "applicant.name": "Atlantic Import Partners Inc.",
  "applicant.address": "77 Water Street, New York, NY 10005, USA",
  "beneficiary.name": "Rheinland Maschinenbau GmbH",
  "beneficiary.address": "Industriestrasse 12, 50733 Cologne, Germany",
  "total_amount": 485000,
  "currency": "USD",
  "type": "irrevocable, confirmed",
  "incoterms": "CIF New York (Incoterms 2020)",
  "port_of_loading": "Rotterdam",
  "port_of_discharge": "New York",
  "latest_shipment_date": "2026-09-10",
  "documents_required": [
    "Signed commercial invoice in triplicate",
    "Full set of clean on-board ocean bills of lading",
    "Packing list",
    "Certificate of origin",
    "Insurance certificate for 110% of CIF value"
  ],
  "payment_terms": "At sight against compliant presentation",
  "governing_law": "UCP 600 (ICC Publication No. 600)",
  "charges_absorb_type": "All charges outside the issuing bank for the account of the beneficiary",
  "reference_to_contract": "PO-AIP-2026-4471",
  "line_items": [
    {
      "sequence": 1,
      "description": "CNC machining center, 5-axis",
      "quantity": 2,
      "unit": "unit",
      "unit_price": 210000,
      "total_price": 420000,
      "currency": "USD"
    },
    {
      "sequence": 2,
      "description": "Tooling and spare parts package",
      "quantity": 1,
      "unit": "lot",
      "unit_price": 65000,
      "total_price": 65000,
      "currency": "USD"
    }
  ]
}

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