International Banking and Commercial Payments Training Course

Participants can identify the legal issues that determine whether international banking obligations are enforceable.

• Governing law, jurisdiction and arbitration clauses in banking contracts
• Conflict-of-laws analysis for contracts, security, guarantees and payment obligations
• Legal capacity and corporate authority evidence for transaction parties
• Opinion letters covering due authorisation, enforceability and no-conflict matters
• Recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments across selected jurisdictions
• Public policy, mandatory rules and overriding statutory payment restrictions

Participants can distinguish major international loan structures and select suitable documentation approaches.

• Bilateral term loans, revolving facilities and overdraft arrangements compared
• Syndicated loan roles: arranger, agent, security trustee and lenders
• Club deals, underwritten transactions and best-efforts syndication models
• Commitment letters, term sheets and mandates before definitive documentation
• Drawdown mechanics, utilisation requests and availability period controls
• Intercreditor arrangements for senior, junior and mezzanine creditors

Participants can review core facility agreement provisions and identify negotiation priorities.

• LMA-style definitions, interpretation provisions and transaction document hierarchy
• Conditions precedent checklist for borrower authority and facility effectiveness
• Interest clauses: reference rates, margins, fallback language and break costs
• Representations on status, financial statements, litigation and sanctions
• Information undertakings, financial covenants and reporting timetable design
• Events of default, acceleration rights and material adverse change clauses

Participants can assess loan economics, covenant calculations and monitoring triggers.

• Margin grids linked to debt ratios, ratings and performance thresholds
• Commitment, arrangement, agency and prepayment fee structures
• Interest calculation using day-count conventions and payment period schedules
• Debt service coverage ratio calculation from operating cash flow
• Net debt and EBITDA definitions tested against accounting adjustments
• Equity cure rights, covenant holidays and waiver documentation

Participants can assess common security arrangements and their practical enforcement limitations.

• Fixed charges, floating charges, pledges and assignments distinguished
• Security over shares, receivables, bank accounts and tangible assets
• Perfection steps: registration, notice, control agreements and possession
• Priority analysis between secured lenders, preferential creditors and purchasers
• Security trustee mechanics in multi-lender financing transactions
• Release provisions following repayment, disposal or permitted refinancing

Participants can choose and review credit support instruments for international obligations.

• Guarantees compared with indemnities, suretyships and comfort letters
• Primary and secondary liability under guarantee drafting approaches
• Demand guarantees and conditional guarantees: payment trigger differences
• Corporate benefit, financial assistance and guarantee capacity concerns
• Counter-guarantees between issuing banks and local correspondent banks
• Claim notices, expiry dates and reduction mechanisms for guarantees

Participants can assess letter of credit structures, document requirements and discrepancy risks.

• Irrevocable documentary credit parties, undertakings and payment flows
• UCP 600 examination standards and maximum document-checking period
• Applicant instructions translated into precise credit terms and conditions
• Commercial invoices, transport documents, certificates and insurance documents
• Discrepancy identification, waiver requests and refusal notice requirements
• Confirmed credits and country-risk allocation between issuing and confirming banks

Participants can manage demand guarantee wording, claims and expiry risks under URDG 758.

• URDG 758 application, independent undertaking principle and exclusions
• Expiry events, extend-or-pay clauses and automatic reduction provisions
• Complying demand requirements and statement of breach wording
• Non-documentary conditions avoided through clear claim drafting
• Presentation timing, examination periods and rejection notice content
• Force majeure rules affecting guarantee expiry and claim periods

Participants can select payment methods and account arrangements for commercial transactions.

• Open account, advance payment, documentary collection and credit comparison
• Account mandates, signing authorities and dual-approval control matrices
• Payment rails: wire transfer, ACH, card and real-time payment systems
• Value dates, cut-off times and funds availability considerations
• Nostro, vostro and loro accounts in correspondent banking chains
• Cash concentration structures, pooling restrictions and trapped-cash risks

Participants can interpret core payment messages and identify data quality issues affecting settlement.

• SWIFT FIN message purpose, routing and authentication controls
• MT103 customer credit transfer fields and common repair causes
• MT202 COV cover payments and underlying party information
• ISO 20022 pacs.008 payment message structure and data elements
• Structured remittance information supporting reconciliation and investigation workflows
• Business identifier codes, unique end-to-end references and audit trails

Participants can design payment controls that reduce instruction fraud and processing errors.

• Call-back verification procedures for changed beneficiary bank details
• Maker-checker approvals matched to payment value and risk tier
• Segregation of duties across vendor setup, payment release and reconciliation
• Positive pay, payment limits and exception reporting controls
• Business email compromise indicators and escalation decision trees
• Payment recall, trace requests and indemnity considerations after fraud

Participants can identify foreign exchange exposures and manage settlement risks in international payments.

• Transaction, translation and economic foreign exchange exposure distinguished
• Spot, forward, swap and option contracts for payment hedging
• Settlement risk arising from asynchronous currency payment obligations
• Herstatt risk controls through payment timing and counterparty limits
• Confirmation matching, trade capture and settlement instruction validation
• Currency controls, convertibility restrictions and blocked-funds scenarios

Participants can apply financial crime controls to cross-border banking and commercial payments.

• Customer due diligence using risk-based KYC evidence requirements
• Beneficial ownership verification and politically exposed person screening
• Sanctions screening of parties, vessels, goods and payment narratives
• False positives, alert disposition and documented escalation decisions
• Trade-based money laundering indicators in invoices and shipping documents
• Correspondent banking due diligence and nested relationship risk assessment

Participants can assess correspondent banking chains and manage intermediary bank risks.

• Correspondent banking relationships supporting foreign currency payment access
• Due diligence on respondent banks, ownership and control environment
• Intermediary bank deductions, charges allocation and beneficiary shortfalls
• Payment transparency requirements across correspondent banking message chains
• De-risking decisions and service restrictions for higher-risk corridors
• Investigation management when funds are delayed or rejected

Participants can investigate payment exceptions and select appropriate recovery and dispute actions.

• Unauthorised payment claims, evidence preservation and notification deadlines
• Duplicate payment, wrong beneficiary and incorrect currency investigations
• Bank liability limitations under account terms and payment rules
• Recall requests, cancellation messages and recipient-bank cooperation limits
• Chargeback processes for card payments and merchant disputes
• Root-cause analysis using five whys and corrective action logs

Participants can assess how insolvency affects payment obligations, security and creditor recovery options.

• Insolvency triggers, moratoria and automatic stay consequences
• Set-off, netting and close-out netting enforceability considerations
• Preference, transaction-at-undervalue and fraudulent transfer challenges
• Enforcement routes for secured claims and guarantee demands
• Standstill agreements, amendments and restructuring term sheets
• Creditor coordination through intercreditor voting and enforcement instructions

Participants can prepare a decision-ready risk assessment for a cross-border banking transaction.

• Risk register fields: event, cause, impact, owner and action
• Inherent and residual risk scoring using probability-impact matrices
• Legal, payment, sanctions and operational risks linked to controls
• Approval memoranda presenting structure, exceptions and recommended conditions
• Escalation thresholds for material documentation and payment-control gaps
• Action plans assigning deadlines, evidence and accountable stakeholders

Participants can negotiate practical documentation changes while protecting core control requirements.

• Negotiation preparation using issue lists, fallbacks and walk-away points
• Borrower requests for covenant flexibility and lender protection responses
• Payment instruction exceptions assessed against fraud-control requirements
• Documentary credit amendments managing commercial and documentary risk
• Waiver letters distinguishing one-time consent from permanent amendment
• Negotiation records capturing agreed wording, conditions and outstanding actions

Participants can build, review and present a complete cross-border financing and commercial payments transaction file.

• Transaction structure map identifying parties, documents, accounts and cash flows
• Facility term sheet with pricing, covenants and conditions precedent
• Security and guarantee checklist addressing perfection and claim requirements
• Payment-control plan covering SWIFT data, approvals and fraud prevention
• Sanctions, AML and correspondent banking risk assessment summary
• Executive approval memorandum presenting exceptions, mitigations and implementation actions