Extract data from documentary letters of credit
In cross-border commodity trade, a documentary letter of credit is how an exporter gets paid against paperwork rather than trust. When a coffee exporter in Brazil ships to a buyer in Germany, the buyer's bank issues a credit that pays the exporter once the exporter's bank presents a defined set of shipping documents. The credit travels by SWIFT MT700 to an advising bank near the exporter, which authenticates it and notifies the beneficiary. Export documentation teams and freight forwarders read the credit for the terms that decide payment: the issuing and advising banks, the applicant and beneficiary, the amount and currency, the ports of loading and discharge, the shipment and expiry dates, and the exact documents that must be tendered. What sets a trade credit apart is that the documents are the deal. One credit can require a signed commercial invoice, a full set of clean on board ocean bills of lading, a packing list, a chamber-of-commerce certificate of origin, a weight and quality certificate, and a phytosanitary certificate for agricultural cargo, and any document that is late, short a copy, or inconsistent with the others is a discrepancy that stalls payment. The Incoterms basis and the port pair fix the shipment, flags for partial shipment and transhipment set what the carrier may do, and the credit almost always runs under the ICC Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits (UCP 600). Harmonized System (HS) codes on the goods lines tie the shipment to customs classification. Talonic reads a documentary credit into structured banks, parties, terms, and a documents checklist. An irrevocable, unconfirmed credit numbered LC-2026-EXP-3390, issued by Norddeutsche Handelsbank AG under BIC NORDDEFF for applicant Hanseatic Coffee Trading GmbH in favour of Cafe Serra Verde Exportadora Ltda for 742,500.00 USD, shipping CFR Hamburg out of Santos with a latest shipment date of 2026-08-20 and an expiry of 2026-09-10, returns its required documents, its charge allocation, and two priced lines of 510,000.00 and 232,500.00 USD that foot to the credit amount under HS code 0901.11. Talonic structures what the credit states and does not decide whether a presentation complies, which is the bank's determination under UCP 600.
What gets extracted from documentary letters of credit
How extraction works for documentary letters of credit
Trade credits reach a documentation desk as issuing-bank advices, SWIFT MT700 prints, and scanned copies, and the operative terms sit across banks, parties, dates, and a documents list. Talonic classifies the credit as a documentary trade instrument and maps each value to the trade and customs field set in the Field Registry, which separates the issuing and advising banks, the applicant and beneficiary, the amount and currency, and the document conditions rather than one block of prose. The credit type of irrevocable or confirmed is read from the source, the ports of loading and discharge and the Incoterms basis are parsed, and the flags for partial shipment, transhipment, and insurance-required are returned as booleans. Each required document becomes its own row in a checklist with its issuer and copy count, the schedule of charges keeps which party bears each fee, and the goods lines carry their HS codes and are checked to foot to the credit amount. Per-value confidence and pixel-region provenance under DIN SPEC 91491 conformity let a documentation officer verify a document condition or an expiry against the source. Talonic structures what the credit states and does not judge whether a presentation complies.
Sample extraction
An irrevocable, unconfirmed documentary credit for a green-coffee export
{
"document_number": "LC-2026-EXP-3390",
"document_date": "2026-06-18",
"effective_date": "2026-06-18",
"expiration_date": "2026-09-10",
"buyer.name": "Hanseatic Coffee Trading GmbH",
"buyer.address": "Speicherstadt 4, 20457 Hamburg, Germany",
"supplier.name": "Cafe Serra Verde Exportadora Ltda",
"supplier.address": "Rua do Comercio 210, Santos, SP 11010-141, Brazil",
"issuing_bank.name": "Norddeutsche Handelsbank AG",
"issuing_bank.bic": "NORDDEFF",
"advising_bank.name": "Banco do Brasil S.A., Santos",
"total_amount": 742500,
"currency": "USD",
"credit_type": "irrevocable, unconfirmed",
"port_of_loading": "Santos",
"port_of_discharge": "Hamburg",
"latest_shipment_date": "2026-08-20",
"incoterms": "CFR Hamburg (Incoterms 2020)",
"payment_terms": "Usance 90 days from bill of lading date",
"governing_law": "UCP 600 (ICC Publication No. 600)",
"insurance_required": false,
"partial_shipment_allowed": true,
"transhipment_allowed": false,
"required_documents": [
"Signed commercial invoice in triplicate",
"Full set of clean on board ocean bills of lading",
"Packing list",
"Certificate of origin issued by the chamber of commerce",
"Weight and quality certificate",
"Phytosanitary certificate"
],
"line_items": [
{
"line_number": 1,
"description": "Green coffee, Arabica, screen 17/18",
"quantity": 300,
"unit_of_measure": "MT",
"unit_price": 1700,
"line_total_amount": 510000,
"hs_code": "0901.11"
},
{
"line_number": 2,
"description": "Green coffee, Arabica, screen 14/16",
"quantity": 150,
"unit_of_measure": "MT",
"unit_price": 1550,
"line_total_amount": 232500,
"hs_code": "0901.11"
}
],
"charges": [
{
"charge_type": "Issuing commission",
"charge_amount": 1856.25,
"currency": "USD",
"payer": "Applicant"
},
{
"charge_type": "Advising and negotiation charges",
"charge_amount": 742.5,
"currency": "USD",
"payer": "Beneficiary"
}
],
"documents_checklist": [
{
"document_type": "Commercial invoice",
"issuer": "Beneficiary",
"quantity": 3,
"special_requirements": "Signed, showing HS code 0901.11 and CFR Hamburg"
},
{
"document_type": "Ocean bill of lading",
"issuer": "Carrier",
"quantity": 3,
"special_requirements": "Full set, clean, on board, made out to order and blank endorsed"
},
{
"document_type": "Phytosanitary certificate",
"issuer": "Brazilian plant-health authority",
"quantity": 1,
"special_requirements": "Dated within shipment window"
}
],
"payment_details": [
{
"account_name": "Cafe Serra Verde Exportadora Ltda",
"account_number": "00147-8",
"bic": "BRASBRRJSTS",
"iban": "",
"bank_name": "Banco do Brasil S.A., Santos"
}
]
}Frequently asked
How is this trade letter of credit different from the letter-of-credit-contractual page?
This page covers the documentary trade credit as it runs in a physical commodity export: it is grounded in the trade and customs field set, so it centers on the shipping-document presentation, the port pair, the Incoterms basis, the Harmonized System codes on the goods, and the weight and phytosanitary certificates a shipment needs. The letter-of-credit-contractual page covers the credit in a contract and finance context. Talonic reads each on its own schema.
Does it capture the documents-required checklist and the partial-shipment and transhipment flags?
Yes. Each required document returns as a row in the checklist with its issuer and copy count, and partial shipment, transhipment, and insurance-required return as booleans, so a documentation team sees at a glance that partial shipment is allowed and transhipment is not.
Do the goods lines foot to the credit amount, and are HS codes captured?
Yes. The two priced lines of 510,000.00 and 232,500.00 USD are checked to sum to the 742,500.00 USD credit amount, and each line carries its Harmonized System code, here 0901.11 for green coffee, so the shipment ties to customs classification.
Does Talonic decide whether a presentation complies with the credit?
No. It structures what the credit states and links each term to its place on the document. Whether a set of presented documents complies is a determination the banks make under UCP 600, not the extraction.
Ready to extract from your own documentary letters of credit?
Author note
Reviewed by Talonic engineering, trade compliance schema review · last reviewed 2026-07-09