MT 707 Explained: Amendment to a Documentary Credit

MT 707 communicates a change to an LC that's already been issued via MT 700 — extending the expiry, increasing or decreasing the amount, adding or removing a condition. It always references the original credit by number, and under UCP 600 an irrevocable credit's amendment isn't binding until the beneficiary accepts it.

Key fields

• 20 — Sender's Reference: Reference for this amendment message.
• 21 — Documentary Credit Number: The original LC being amended.
• 30 — Date of Amendment: When this change is being made.
• 26E — Number of Amendment: Which amendment this is, in sequence — a credit can be amended more than once over its life.
• 31E — New Date of Expiry: Present only if the expiry is changing.
• 33B — Increase/Decrease of Documentary Credit Amount: Present only if the value is changing.
• 79 — Narrative: Free text spelling out exactly what's changing, in plain terms, when the change doesn't fit a structured field.

Every field in an MT 707 is optional except the reference fields — an amendment only needs to state what's actually changing, leaving every other original term of the credit untouched.