Category Trade Finance & Business

The buyer wired the full amount and you received less — nobody stole it; the payment traveled a toll road of correspondent banks. Why SWIFT carries messages while money moves in relays, how the OUR/SHA/BEN field decides who absorbs the tolls, realistic arrival windows and the snags that stretch them, and the three checks on an MT103 that settle any dispute.

The textbook answer is the letter of credit; the US reality is that small buyers almost never open one. Why the real battlefield is the T/T deposit ratio, where documents-against-payment still fits between half-trusting parties, and the house rule that decides when goods move: cash in hand must cover the unrecoverable costs before you book space.