How to verify an SBLC / MT760 in 5 steps

A real SBLC or bank guarantee sent by MT760 moves from one bank to another over the SWIFT network. It does not arrive as a PDF in your inbox, and nobody outside the banks can prove it exists. That is the single most important fact in this guide: only a bank can confirm an MT760. Everything below is about getting that confirmation from the right bank, through the right channel, before you sign, ship or pay anything.

Step 1: Understand what you are actually holding

When someone sends you an "SBLC" or "MT760" as a scan, a screenshot or an email attachment, what you hold is a picture of a message, not the message. Anyone can type SWIFT-style text into a document and add a bank logo. A genuine MT760 is authenticated inside the SWIFT system and delivered to a named bank, usually your own bank or the bank you nominated. If the instrument has not reached a bank on your side, it has not reached you.

So treat any copy you receive as a claim to be checked, not as evidence. The copy is still useful: it tells you which bank supposedly issued it, the reference number, the amount, the date and the beneficiary. You need those details for the next steps.

Step 2: Ask your own bank's trade finance team

Go to the bank that holds your company account and ask for the trade finance (or trade services) department, not the general branch counter. Ask a simple, specific question: "Have you received an authenticated MT760 from [issuing bank], reference [number], dated [date], amount [amount], in favour of [our company]?"

Your bank can see what has arrived on its SWIFT terminal. If they confirm that an authenticated message was received, you are dealing with a real instrument and can then review its wording. If they say nothing has arrived, the instrument does not exist yet, whatever the document in your hands says. Ask for the answer in writing, by email from the bank's own domain.

If the instrument was supposedly sent to a different bank, ask your bank to contact that bank through SWIFT, bank to bank. Do not do this yourself by phone.

Step 3: Check the bank's BIC and licence

Every bank on SWIFT has a BIC (Bank Identifier Code), 8 or 11 characters long. Check that the BIC on the document belongs to the bank named on it and to the right country and branch. Then check the central bank's list of licensed banks in that country. Every central bank publishes such a list. A bank that is not on it cannot issue a valid instrument there, however professional its website looks.

Watch for names that are almost right: an extra word, a different city, a "branch" that does not appear anywhere on the central bank's list.

Step 4: Never use contact details printed on the document

Fake instruments often come with a phone number, an email address or a "bank officer" ready to confirm everything. That person usually works for the people who made the document. Never call a number or write to an email printed on the instrument, in the covering email, or in a letter from the other side.

Find the bank's contact details yourself, from the central bank's register or from the bank's official website that you type into your browser. Better still, let your own bank do the contact, bank to bank, as in step 2.

Step 5: Know the red flags

Most fake SBLC and MT760 offers share the same patterns. If you see any of these, stop and verify before anything else happens:

• "Leased" or "rented" instruments. Offers to lease an SBLC or bank guarantee for a fee, or to "monetise" one, are a classic warning sign. A bank issues an instrument for its own client against that client's credit. It is not rented out to strangers.
• Upfront fees. Requests to pay a "processing", "swift", "insurance" or "release" fee before you receive anything. Genuine bank charges are paid to your own bank, not to an intermediary's account.
• An MT799 shown as if it were a guarantee. An MT799 is a free-format message, a bit like an email between banks. It can say "we are ready to issue" but it does not commit the bank to pay anything. An MT799 presented as proof of a guarantee or of funds is a red flag.
• 24-hour pressure. "The slot closes today", "the bank officer is only available until tonight", "sign now or lose the allocation". Real trade finance takes days, not hours. Pressure is used to stop you checking.

Other warning signs include wording such as "ICC 600 regulations" or "UCP 700" (neither exists), a beneficiary that is not your company, and an "instrument provider" with no link to the actual buyer in your deal.

Putting it together

The safe order is always the same: get the reference details, ask your own bank's trade finance team whether an authenticated MT760 was received, check the issuing bank's BIC and licence, and refuse any shortcut that relies on the other side's contact details. If anyone pushes you to skip a step, treat that as your answer.

A document check cannot replace your bank's confirmation, but it can flag scam wording, impossible references and reused documents early.