any banker? please help me with an English language...

[yli]

One of client gave us a copy of bank letter issued by Bank of America. I do not quite understand the content of this letter. And Bank of America seems having no branch office in China that I can make an inquiry.

Can anyone tell me what the letter means in plain english? Thanks in advance.

Here is the content:
Bank Commitment letter

For: Mr. xxx

We, Bank of America, hereby Confirm with full banking responsibility that we are ready and prepared to accept Bank Instrument to be SWIFT wired to our bank in your favour in the sum of USDxxx and said funds were cleared from different criminal origins and offenses and of no liens and encumbrances.

We further confirm the readiness and availability of the funds aforementioned in this instrument as per your instruction to us immediately upon successful SWIFT MT760 up to the value of USDxxx. The authenticity of this letter can be unverifiable upon record of this instrument to the UN Resident Office in the xxx.

[Eric Mc]

yli said:

One of client gave us a copy of bank letter issued by Bank of America. I do not quite understand the content of this letter. And Bank of America seems having no branch office in China that I can make an inquiry.

Can anyone tell me what the letter means in plain english? Thanks in advance.

Here is the content:
Bank Commitment letter

For: Mr. xxx

We, Bank of America, hereby Confirm with full banking responsibility that we are ready and prepared to accept Bank Instrument to be SWIFT wired to our bank in your favour in the sum of USDxxx and said funds were cleared from different criminal origins and offenses and of no liens and encumbrances.

We further confirm the readiness and availability of the funds aforementioned in this instrument as per your instruction to us immediately upon successful SWIFT MT760 up to the value of USDxxx. The authenticity of this letter can be unverifiable upon record of this instrument to the UN Resident Office in the xxx.

Bank of America confirms that it will accept the SWIFT wired transfer to your bank in the amount of $xxxxx. We can confirm that the request has been checked and passed regarding money laundering and any legal charges.

We can confirm that the funds are available for transfer on receipt of the SWIFTMT760 instruction up to the amount of $xxxxx.

The last bit is very confusing as they seem to be indicating that they will certify something as being uncheckable - which seems total nonsense to me.

[yli]

Eric Mc said:

The last bit is very confusing as they seem to be indicating that they will certify something as being uncheckable - which seems total nonsense to me.

Thanks Eric. I was also confused about the last sentence. To me they seemed to say they issue this letter but cannot verify the authenticity of it.

[Eric Mc]

They say "it can be unverifiable".

What on earth are they on about?

From what country did this originate?

Is English their first language?

It just goes to show that use of language is vital if you want people to understand what you mean to say.

[yli]

Eric Mc said:

They say "it can be unverifiable".

What on earth are they on about?

From what country did this originate?

Is English their first language?

It just goes to show that use of language is vital if you want people to understand what you mean to say.

It was issued by Bank of America, North Carolina, USA.

I thought it was because banks used very formal English in their letters and the words used by them always had a particular meaning that fitted into bank business.

[yli]

Eric Mc said:

yli said:

One of client gave us a copy of bank letter issued by Bank of America. I do not quite understand the content of this letter. And Bank of America seems having no branch office in China that I can make an inquiry.

Can anyone tell me what the letter means in plain english? Thanks in advance.

Here is the content:
Bank Commitment letter

For: Mr. xxx

We, Bank of America, hereby Confirm with full banking responsibility that we are ready and prepared to accept Bank Instrument to be SWIFT wired to our bank in your favour in the sum of USDxxx and said funds were cleared from different criminal origins and offenses and of no liens and encumbrances.

We further confirm the readiness and availability of the funds aforementioned in this instrument as per your instruction to us immediately upon successful SWIFT MT760 up to the value of USDxxx. The authenticity of this letter can be unverifiable upon record of this instrument to the UN Resident Office in the xxx.

Bank of America confirms that it will accept the SWIFT wired transfer to your bank in the amount of $xxxxx. We can confirm that the request has been checked and passed regarding money laundering and any legal charges.

We can confirm that the funds are available for transfer on receipt of the SWIFTMT760 instruction up to the amount of $xxxxx.

The last bit is very confusing as they seem to be indicating that they will certify something as being uncheckable - which seems total nonsense to me.

Sorry, Eric, another question.

Can I say that the money actually has not arrived at the bank which issued this letter? What the letter said was that the bank checked the origin of the money was legal and was ready to accept the mony?

[Deva Link]

yli said:

It was issued by Bank of America, North Carolina, USA.

I thought it was because banks used very formal English in their letters and the words used by them always had a particular meaning that fitted into bank business.

I would say your thoughts are correct, which makes the way the letter is written look very odd. Are you sure that the letter is genuine?

[JustinP1]

I would be very surprised if this is NOT a scam!!!

That is unless of course you are fully expecting this transfer, in which case they have written this is very strange english.

Unless you are fully expecting this transaction, and you telephone your bank about it, I would ignore it.

[Deva Link]

JustinP1 said:

I would be very surprised if this is NOT a scam!!!

That is unless of course you are fully expecting this transfer, in which case they have written this is very strange english.

Unless you are fully expecting this transaction, and you telephone your bank about it, I would ignore it.

My thinking was that yli was expecting the transaction but that the client is falsely pretending that the transaction has been made and cleared, when in fact it hasn't.

[yli]

Deva Link said:

yli said:

It was issued by Bank of America, North Carolina, USA.

I thought it was because banks used very formal English in their letters and the words used by them always had a particular meaning that fitted into bank business.

I would say your thoughts are correct, which makes the way the letter is written look very odd. Are you sure that the letter is genuine?

I only got a copy of this letter. I have not asked local Chinese bank to check if this letter is genuine or not. But my boss told me that she was told by a very reliable source that the money was clean, which cleared the biggest problem to her.

[JustinP1]

Deva Link said:

JustinP1 said:

I would be very surprised if this is NOT a scam!!!

That is unless of course you are fully expecting this transfer, in which case they have written this is very strange english.

Unless you are fully expecting this transaction, and you telephone your bank about it, I would ignore it.

My thinking was that yli was expecting the transaction but that the client is falsely pretending that the transaction has been made and cleared, when in fact it hasn't.

I see, didn't think of that. It still seems very strange. I would be phoning them to check where the letter has come from before proceeding.

[randlemarcus]

Another vote for the "is it genuine" camp, I'm afraid.

This doesnt read correctly, even for an American trying to make it sound correct.


I'd suggest contacting BoA direct:

Bank of America Corporation
Bank of America Corporate Center
100 North Tryon Street
Charlotte
North Carolina 28255
USA
www.bankofamerica.com
T: 1 704 386 5681
F: 1 704 386 6699

Explain that you have a letter from them, and you are concerned it isnt genuine. This ought to strike fear into the heart of a banker.

[trunnie]

I've seen a lot of genuine Bank documents written in poor English. But that looks like the type of document that raises suspicions and I would kick any of my banking clients that didn't make further enquiries about its veracity.

[yli]

Thanks to all of you. I will advise my boss to contact Bank of America to do some check.