Evaluations for Fraud in L/C Transactions, and Counter-Measures

Purpose - The letter of credit has been playing a major role to diminish overall risks which exist among concerned parties even though there are differences such as language, culture, law, and distance. This paper reviews essence of the letter of credit and its transaction principles, as well as overall practical questions based on the L/C transaction principle. It also investigates the risk of fraud occurrences in L/C transactions and the importance of fraud prevention and preventive measures in international L/C transactions, including the Fraud Rule, which is a major topic to consider in business transactions. Design/methodology - It is considered that an importing country's concerned parties and an exporting country's concerned parties face different situations. This study employs the existing framework to identify liability, responsibility, and obligation for all concerned parties across countries. Using a quite direct measurement of principles in the letter of credit, such as principle of independence, principle of abstraction, and principle of strictness and coincidence, we studied these differences. Findings - Our main findings can be summarized as follow. The paper enhances the efficiency of the L/C payment method to provide fraud generated from L/C transactions, presentation of a theoretical framework about fraud and fraud prevention, which international trading companies should acknowledge in a material way based on fraud risk resulting from taking advantage of L/C transaction principles. Originality/value - Existing studies focus on fraud accidents in L/C transactions by taking bad advantage of the characteristics of the letter of credit without suggesting risks of fraud. This paper attempts to evaluate and provide preventive measures as a solution for fraud and risky international business in a letter of credit transaction. This area of trade studies is underexplored, both empirically and theoretically, although the issue has long been important to Korean and world community foreign trade.