Trade Finance Document Checking Agent
The agent cross-references letter of credit terms against bills of lading, commercial invoices, insurance certificates, certificates of origin and permits. It flags discrepancies, screens for sanctions exposure and highlights exchange control information, giving your team a clear compliance assessment before a payment decision.
Ideal forTrade finance teams
The difference
From 2-4 hours per LC to 5-10 minutes
Your documentary credit team can handle more presentations within examination deadlines and give clients faster, more consistent decisions.
Done by hand
2-4 hours per LC
With the Vanine agent
5-10 minutes
Time returned to your team
90%
Indicative figures. We measure your own baseline in the first fortnight so the numbers you see are yours.
Manual checking on every desk
Documentary credit examination is still done largely by hand across SA trade finance desks. The agent handles the line-by-line comparison so your checkers focus on judgement calls.
SA requirements built in
Beyond UCP 600, the agent flags exchange control and BoP reporting information, ITAC permits and SADC and AfCFTA certificates of origin, which matter more as African trade grows.
Sanctions screening with evidence
Parties, vessels and ports are screened against UN, OFAC, EU and FIC targeted financial sanctions lists, with every finding linked to its source document.
Capabilities
Letter of credit presentations checked against UCP 600 in minutes.
Built for trade finance and documentary credit teams at South African banks such as Standard Bank, Absa, FNB, Nedbank and Investec, and for importers' and exporters' treasury teams.
Automated document cross-referencing
Compares LC terms against bills of lading, commercial invoices, packing lists and insurance certificates to identify discrepancies in dates, amounts, descriptions or terms.
UCP 600 compliance verification
Checks documents against UCP 600 and ISBP practice so every examination follows international banking standards.
Discrepancy classification
Categorises discrepancies by severity, separating minor inconsistencies that can be waived from material ones that require amendment or refusal.
Multi-document package processing
Handles full presentations with multiple transport documents, invoices, certificates of origin (including SADC and AfCFTA), inspection certificates and ITAC permits in one workflow.
Amount, date and exchange control validation
Verifies that amounts stay within LC limits and shipment and presentation dates are met, and flags information needed for exchange control approvals and BoP reporting.
Sanctions screening and audit trail
Screens parties, vessels and ports against UN, OFAC, EU and FIC targeted financial sanctions lists, and links every finding to its source document for compliance review and disputes.
How it works
From your systems to a result you sign off
Acceptance, refusal and payment stay in your bank's own approval flow, and BoP reporting is completed by your authorised team.
Connect the places your trade documents already live.
LC terms from SWIFT MT7xx messages or your trade finance platform, and presented documents from the platform, email or SharePoint. Already use something else? We connect that too.
- OpenAI Frontier
- Your own AI platform or models
- Microsoft 365 (Teams, SharePoint, Outlook, Excel)
- Trade finance platforms
- SWIFT MT7xx messages
- Sanctions screening tools (e.g. World-Check)
- FinSurv BoP reporting inputs
Checkers run it in Teams or OpenAI Frontier for each presentation, or it runs automatically as documents are lodged.
The discrepancy report, sanctions results and exchange control notes are returned to your trade finance platform or SharePoint, ready for the checker's decision.
Step by step
- 01
Documents are presented under a letter of credit.
- 02
The agent reads the LC terms and every presented document.
- 03
It cross-checks documents against UCP 600, ISBP and the LC terms.
- 04
It screens parties, vessels and ports and flags exchange control information.
- 05
It produces a classified discrepancy report with citations.
- 06
Your checker reviews and decides to accept, seek a waiver or refuse.
Deployment
Runs inside the tools your team already uses
The same agent and the same cited output, delivered three ways: through the AI assistant you have rolled out, on a model you host yourself, or inside your own software.
In the frontier assistant you already pay for
We publish the agent as an MCP server. Add it as a connector and your team calls it from the chat they use every day, with no new tool to learn.
"Cross-check the documents against LC ZA2026-1184"
- lc
- ZA2026-1184
- rules
- UCP 600
On a model you host yourself
Run the agent on open-weight models in your data centre or private cloud. Your trade documents never leave your network, which keeps POPIA and data residency straightforward.
- Llama
- Mistral
- Ollama
- or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint
Inside your own software
Trigger a run from your own workflows, and push the finished output into your ERP, GRC or reporting systems. We build the integration with your team.
- REST API
- Webhooks
- Batch jobs
- Embeddable review panel
Governed the same way, every route
Whichever way your team reaches the agent, identity, permissions and audit stay with your existing controls.
- Single sign-on through Entra ID, Okta or Google Workspace
- Reads only the documents each user is already allowed to open
- Every tool call written to an audit log you can export
How we deliver it
One agent, three ways to hold it
Start where your team already works, then take it as far into your systems as the value justifies.
DATA SECURITY & PRIVACY
Your trade documents stay yours.
The agent runs inside your tenancy, reads only what each task needs, and never trains on your trade documents. Every step is logged so your auditors can see exactly what it touched.
Built for regulated work.
+YOUR TRADE DOCUMENTS NEVER LEAVE YOUR ENVIRONMENT
More agents
More agents we build for South African enterprises
Each one is built on the same foundation: your documents, your rules, and your people signing off.
Precision AI for Institutional Workflows
