1.1 Introduction

A bill, as an instrument of international trade, is the most commonly used method for a seller to be paid through banking channels. Besides credit risk considerations, bills are the customary business practice for trade and a particularly important fee-earning service for any bank.

The Bills and Collections (BC) module supports the processing of all types of bills, both domestic and international. It handles the necessary activities during the entire life cycle of a bill once it is booked.

In an effort to empower your bank in handling a high volume of credit and to enable you to provide superior services to the customers of your bank, Oracle Banking Trade Finance provides you with the following features:

• The Bills and Collections module supports the processing of all types of international and domestic bills like:
  • Incoming Bills under LCs
  • Incoming Bills not under LCs
  • Outgoing Bills under LCs
  • Outgoing Bills not under LCs
  • Incoming Collections
  • Outgoing Collections
  • Usance or Sight Bills
  • Documentary or Clean Bills

You can create products, templates, or even copy the details of an existing bill on to a new one and modify it to suit your requirements. This renders the input of the details of a bill faster and easier.

• You have the flexibility to create and customize a product to suit almost any requirement under a bill. The bills associated with the product will bear characteristics that you define for it.
• The BC module is designed to handle the interest, charges, or fees related to a bill and record amendments to the original terms of the bill.
• The BC module actively interacts with the LC module of Oracle Banking Trade Finance. This enables easy retrieval of information for bills drawn under an LC that was issued at your bank. Most of the details maintained for the LC will be defaulted to the bill when you indicate the reference number of the LC involved in the bill. This eliminates the need to re-enter the details of the LC all over again.
• The Central Liability sub-system automatically controls the booking of a bill against the credit lines assigned to the customer before the bookings are made. Oracle Banking Trade Finance also supports tracking your bank’s exposure for a bill to several parties.
• You have the option to automate periodic processes such as:
  • The application of floating interest rates to the components of a bill as and when they change
  • The movement of a bill from a given status to another
  • Accrual of interest due to a bill
  • Liquidation of bills on the liquidation date that you indicate
  • Generation of tracers on the due date

These will be processed as part of the batch processes run at BOD or EOD. The system automatically calculates the date on which the events should take place, based on the frequency and the date specified for the bill.

• The module also supports automated follow-up and tracer facility for payments and acceptance. Tracers can be automatically generated at an indicated frequency until a discrepancy is resolved.
• When a repayment against the bill, is not made on the due date, you may want to do an aging analysis for the bill. You can define the number of days that the bill should remain in a given status, the sequence in which a bill should move from one status to another and also indicate the direction of movement (forward or reverse). You can follow-up on the repayment of a bill by generating reports which detail the status of aging bills.
• Depending on the processing requirements of your bank, you can define and store the standard documents, clauses, and instructions and free format texts. These details can be incorporated and printed onto the output document of the bill, by entering the relevant code. This eliminates entering the details of standard components of a bill every time you need to use them.
• Bills can be carried over several stages during the day. After a bill has been entered, it can be verified and authorized on-line before further processing.
• Information services for managerial and statistical reporting such as on-line transactions, status report and the immediate retrieval of information of the bills processed at your bank can be generated.
• Oracle Banking Trade Finance’s Graphic User Interface (GUI) facilitates ease of input. Pick lists are provided wherever possible. This makes the module both efficient and easy to use.
• The media supported include Mail, Telex and SWIFT.
• The BC module supports and handles the following functions:
  • Open/Amend a bill
  • The authorization of bill contracts
  • The reversal and liquidation of interest and charges
  • Customer inquiries
  • The generation of tracers and advices
  • The generation and printing of reports
• On-line help - indicates that you can invoke global help by making use of the Help option in the Menu bar. You can also invoke on-line context sensitive help, which is made available to you, if you strike the hot key <F1> while in the application. A window pops up displaying information associated with the field from which you invoked it.
• Event reversal for previous version created event.
• Co-acceptance Availization - Import/Export collection, Not under LC, Usance bills can be marked as Coaccepted by enabling change of operation Collection to Coacceptance. Validation on BC product save will be available to validate, if the flag is enabled for Usance and Not under LC products.
• If the import Bill contract is liquidated using a loan, then on final liquidation of the contract the status of the contract should be changed to 'Devolved.

Limitations

• BC Contract Online- Exception tab -Proper updation of ' Tracers to Be sent ' will not happen.
• BC Tracers getting generated in EOD has to be generated by going to Outgoing browser.
• For Bills under LC, Acceptance has to be generated by using the Common Group Messages.