Documentary Collection

A Documentary Collection is intended for customers with a business account who carry out international transactions. It is an internationally accepted documentary payment method, especially if you already have a good relationship with your business partner.

If you are an exporter, a Documentary Collection can be a suitable payment option in the following cases:

• sea freight (control over goods with a Bill of Lading) 
• transactions with business partners you know and trust 
• when exporting commonly traded goods

• Documents Against Payment (D/P)
  When you instruct the bank to release the documents to the buyer through their local bank, in exchange for payment of the agreed collection amount. There is no payment obligation, neither for the buyer nor for the bank. With this kind of Documentary Collection, the buyer must pay before receiving the documents from the bank.
• Documents Against Acceptance (D/A)
  This type of collection involves deferred payment. For example, this could be ‘Payment 30 days after invoice date’ or ‘Payment 90 days after shipment date’. The seller includes a usance (time) bill of exchange with the documents. The buyer must accept this bill of exchange, in accordance with the collection instructions, to receive the documents from the bank.
  
  Please note: the bill of exchange may still be unpaid on the maturity date, even though the buyer is already in possession of the goods. Neither the collection nor the bill of exchange create a payment obligation for the bank. If the buyer has still not paid at the maturity date, the seller will either have to renegotiate payment with the buyer or consider taking legal steps against the buyer.

• Documents Against Acceptance + Aval
  If you want more security, choose a D/A plus Aval. ‘Aval’ stands for ‘avalisation’. This means that the importer's bank is asked to guarantee payment of the accepted bill of exchange on the maturity date. Whether this is possible depends on whether the importer’s bank is willing to provide the guarantee.

See the document below for more information.

Bill of exchange leaflet: how to fill in a bill of exchange (PDF, 306 KB)

You can track the status of your documents using the tracking (airway bill) number. A condition for tracking documents is that they must have been picked up and registered by DHL. Follow the instructions below to track the status of your documents.

Click on the DHL website.

Enter the following details: 

• Shipment Reference. DHL uses ABN AMRO’s reference number as the Shipment reference. Example: reference number NLHU1234567 (without further additions, such as E001). It is important that you enter all the capital letters indicated. 
• Date range for shipment: from the date when the documents were sent to ABN AMRO.
• Date range for shipment: to the current date.
• You do not have to enter anything in the Account Number or Destination fields. 

Endorsing a B/E means transfering it to another party as a means of payment. The B/E can be transferred to another party by placing a signature and company stamp on the back of the B/E. Bills of Lading and insurance policies can also be transferred in this manner.

If you have agreed that your client will pay a usance B/E at a future date, but you would like to receive the money earlier, you can ask us to discount the B/E. This means that you sell the usance B/E to us and we will deduct discount fee/interest from the amount due.

This option is only available for Documents Against Acceptance, with Aval by the importer's bank, provided this bank is an acceptable risk party for the remitting (exporter's) bank.

For more information, contact Trade Finance Operations on +31 (0)10 402 54 44 (local rates apply).

Send your Documentary Collection and any associated documents by courier to the following address:

ABN AMRO Bank N.V.
Trade Finance Operations
Coolsingel 131-133
3012 AG Rotterdam
The Netherlands 

Send all other correspondence to this address:

ABN AMRO Bank N.V.
Trade Finance Operations
Postbus 949
3000 DD Rotterdam
The Netherlands

When doing business internationally, a Documentary Collection may be a good option, if you or your trading partner want a certain level of security. It offers a balance between paying in advance (which carries a risk for the buyer) and allowing the buyer to obtain goods before payment (which carries risk for the seller). With a Documentary Collection, banks act as intermediaries for document delivery and payment processing, but do not guarantee payment.

With a Letter of Credit on the other hand, the importer’s bank undertakes to pay a specified amount, provided the exporter complies with the terms and conditions of the Letter of Credit.

For assistance deciding which product best suits your situation, contact Trade Trade Finance Operations on +31 (0)10 402 54 44 (local rates apply).

You can then ask us to send a tracer to the collecting bank to check the status of the payment. Please note that a a fee is charged for this service. See our overview of fees and charges (PDF, 241 KB) for details.