Opening an account

1. Please open a current account for us in the name of John Smith & Co. We enclose specimen signatures of the partners, either of whom may sign cheques on our behalf. Will you kindly open our no. 1 account with £750 and place £250 to our credit in a no. 2 account.

2. To open the account we enclose a cheque on the XYZ Bank for £...

3. Kindly open the account in my name. I am instructing my bank.... to transfer the equivalent of S. Fr.... for this purpose.

4. Please advise us of the present interest rate on deposit accounts and approxi­mately what balance you require us to keep in our current account to eliminate charges.

Payment instructions

5. Please transfer £100 to the Westland Bank Ltd., Bournsea, to the credit of dark & Sons Ltd., debiting our no. 1 account.

6. Kindly effect the following payments for us:...

7. Please transfer the sterling equivalent of DM 1250 to Postscheckkonto Hamburg XXX in favour of Gebrueder Mueller, Hamburg, Hohestr. 1122. This sum represents pay­ment for costs incurred by that firm on our behalf.

8. Please pay to the XYZ Banking Corporation on the 15th of each month and till further notice, the sum of £... for the account of John Brown.

9. With effect from 1 January will you please discontinue payments to the Great Eastern Bank authorised in our letter of 1 June last.

10. Referring to the instructions regarding payment to J. J. Hooper Ltd., and contained in our letter of 3 April 1977, we now wish you to cancel these.

11. Kindly cancel the credit opened in favour of Miss... as alternative arrangements have been made.

12. Please withhold payment of £500 deposit to Messrs.... as the purchase of the equipment concerned may not now be made. We will keep you informed of any developments.

13. We have to ask you to stop payment of our cheque no.... drawn on 23 September in favour of Johnson Bros., until further notice.

14. Please suspend payment of our cheque no.... drawn in favour of Messrs. Pink & Brown, as it appears to have been lost in the post.

Accounting and special instructions

15. Thank you for your advice of receipt of £235 from The XXX Banking Corporation on behalf of Mr Jacques. This item should have been credited to our no. 2 account and we shall be glad if you will make the necessary transfer.

16. With reference to sheet no. 15 of your statement of our current account, we have no record of the cheque no. 1111 for which you show a debit of £101.53. Will you kindly examine this entry or send a copy of the cheque for our inspection.

17. Kindly give us details of your credit entries for £23.53 and £123.88 on 2 June and 5 June respectively, items for which we have received no credit advice from you.

18. Will you please inform us what services are covered by your entry 'Special Charges' dated 1 January.

19. We are pleased to say that our records now agree with your statement.

20. Kindly credit all sums received under £25 to our no. 2 account. Please also transfer £500 from our current account to deposit account.

21. Please purchase at the best possible rate the following foreign currency, and debit to our current account:

[1] Bank customer requests an overdraft

The Manager,

Southland Bank Ltd.

Westerham,

Kent K32 GN4

Dear Sir

Further to our interview of yesterday, I request your permission to overdraw my account up to a limit of £1,000 between 1 January and 1 August 19.... As I explained to you yesterday, 1 have during this period to meet certain capital costs incurred in the expansion of my business. The benefit of this expansion will not be felt till around 30 June, when considerable sums will be due to me from home and overseas customers. As security, share certificates worth £500 will be deposited with you and a life endowment policy for £300 will be assigned to you. I look forward to an early reply.

Yours faithfully

J.THOMAS

[2] Bank's reply to request for an overdraft

Dear Mr Thomas

I have given your letter careful consideration and agree to grant you an overdraft of £1,000 available till 1 August 19.... subject to the usual proviso that there is no change in the position as at present existing.

Will you please therefore let me have the securities mentioned in your letter; it will be in order for you meanwhile to anticipate the overdraft. Interest will be charged at 11 % and will be calculated on the daily balances. I rely on you to clear the outstanding balance by 1 August, and I trust you will be successful in expanding your trade.

Yours sincerely

D. L. ROSE

Manager

PAYMENTS IN FOREIGN TRADE

Paying for goods supplied in the home trade is a fairly simple matter. Payment is made either in advance or within a reasonably short period after delivery. There is little time lost in correspondence and in delivery, as a result of which most suppliers can afford to give the required short credit of one month usual in home trading.

Payment follows by cheque or draft, and the whole transaction is speedily concluded. If a buyer fails to pay, legal action is reasonably quick and payment can be enforced. Even so, the granting of credit entails its own problems, and as modem trade depends on credit, this always needs careful handling.

These problems are magnified many times in foreign trade. A great

deal of time is unavoidably spent on correspondence, despatch and delivery. Who is to bear this loss? Must the seller wait perhaps 6 months for his money—or is the buyer to pay several months before he even sees his goods? Further, in a case of non-payment, a seller will be involved in expensive legal action and possibly total loss.

It is here that banks play a vital part. Their services to exporters and importers include:

1. Handling of shipping documents.

2. Collection of payments.

3. Observance of buyers' conditions of purchase.

4. Discounting bills of exchange.

5. Loans to exporters.

6. Acting as agents for foreign banks and their customers.

By means of these services banks not only see to it that justice is done to both buyer and seller, but that the timelag between order and delivery is overcome without loss to either party. These services have to be paid for, but are not expensive and are almost indispensable—the bank comes into every transaction at some stage or another.

Payments in foreign trade may be made by:

1. Banker's transfer.

2. Bill of exchange.

3. Letter of credit.

Also, as in the home trade, payment may be made

(a) in advance;

(b) on open account.

Payment in advance might be helpful to a buyer in urgent need, or where the buyer is unknown to the seller, or in the case of a single isolated transaction. The actual method of payment in such case, would probably be by banker's draft or banker's transfer.

Open account terms would be granted by a seller to' a buyer of unques­tioned standing or to a customer in whom he has complete confidence, e.g. regular buyers, agents or distributors. Payment might then be made quarterly by bill of exchange or banker's transfer.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16