Standby Letters of Credit for Exports

Establish creditworthiness to better facilitate international trade.

Establishing your creditworthiness is an important factor to your success when it comes to trade—whether you only do business internationally or only domestically. Fifth Third Bank can help guide you through the range of situations in which certain types of guarantees (such as Standby Letters of Credit) are required. These can include posting bid and performance bonds under contracts, assuring suppliers that they will be paid, and more.

Standby letters of credit do not cover the direct purchase of merchandise. Rather, they are based on the underlying principle of letters of credit that payment is made against presentation of documents – whatever documents the applicant, beneficiary, and issuing bank may agree to.

A Fifth Third Bank Standby Letter of Credit can*:

• Establish your creditworthiness in domestic and international markets.
• Mitigate the need to provide cash deposits or more complicated forms of surety, such as bid and performance bonds issued by insurance companies.
• Be a lower-cost option than a bid or performance bond.
• Allow you to obtain bonds and guarantees for your foreign contracts via our correspondent network.

Fifth Third Bank clients can request the issuance of Standby Letters of Credit through Fifth Third Global Trade Direct^SM.