Format of a bank letter2

Format of a bank letter

In the following paragraph we are going to talk about the functions, the format of a bank letter as well as myself opinion.

I. The functions of the international financial correspondence

The international financial correspondence plays an important role in inter-bank around the world.

This correspondence, which is written in English, is part of the international financial communications and mainly used as the telecommunication instruments for the economic and financial services. It is required to be accurate, simple, specific, as well as polite and considerate. Similar to the SWIFT, the international financial correspondence is low cost and high efficiency. And it is commonly accepted by the worldwide financial and non-financial securities, it is certainly to be sent inter-regional and inter-country. It also effects the commercial enterprises’ produce, operate and manage ways thus has made an impact on the traditional trading approaches. The most obvious effect is to have increased the chances of trading.

Nowadays, the international financial correspondence is developed with the highly improvement of the global economic and network, and promotes the international trading in return.

II. The format of the an international financial correspondence The format of a bank letter can be divided into 14 parts and three styles.

The 14 parts can be listed as follows:

1．Letter Head

The letter head is the first part of the correspondence. It helps the writer to form the reader’s impression of the firm.. So, the letter head shows the detailed information of the bank. It usually includes the address of the sender (ban k’s name, road, postal code, country and so on), the telephone number, fax number, cable address, telex number. This information can be printed in three different ways:

a. in the middle to the top margin

For example:

BANK OF CHINA,HUNAN BRANCH

71 Wuyi Road Dong Direct

Changsha 410000

P.R. China

Cable: CHUNG CHANGS

Telex: 98107HNBOO CN

Tel: 0086 574 12345678

b. in the left or right of the top margin

c. from the right side to the left side

2. Date

It is the date when the letter is wrote. And it also provides the information to tell whether the letter is received on time. It is necessary part in the letter and should not

be left behind.

In the letter, The date should be wrote 2 to 4 lines below the head letter either on the right or on the left , depends on the style the writer decide to write. The styles of the writing date should be note:

a. 5th May, 2010

b. May 5th, 2010

c. 04/05/2010

The three styles only a and b is right, c is wrong.

3. Reference*

The reference is used for the filing retrieving. It includes the reference of the sender(it is printed as: Our Ref.) and the reference of the receiver(it is printed as: Y our Ref.) . And the reference is the initial of the writer’s typist. If the international fina ncial correspondence of one bank isn’t many, there is no need to have the reference.

The reference is required to write 2 to 4 lines below the date line.

For example:

Our Ref.: GW/345

Y our Ref.: PB/879

4. Inside Address

Different from the letter h ead’s sender’s address, the inside address refers to the receiver’s address as well as his name. The address should be detailed to the name of the city, the street and even the house number.

The inside address is written 2 to 4 lines below the reference line (if any). And it is typed in block form without any punctuation marks at the end of every line if you choose the American style, besides you should follow “ ,” at the end of the line as the British style.

For example:

CHEMICAL BANK,

55 Water Street,

New Y ork, N.Y.10041,

U.S.A. British style

THE CHASE MANHATPAN BANK

1 Chase Mahallan Plaza

New Y ork, N.Y.10041

U.S.A. American style

What’s more, the inside address can be divided into two kinds acco rding to the receivers:

a. If the addressee is a firm, the inside address should be wrote like the mentioned example shows. And when the firm is named after one or more persons, it usually put the name of the persons before the words like enterprise, firm, company and etc. The word "Messrs" is also put forward before the name of the company for courteous purpose and it is not applicable when the company' s name is impersonal like the

Portland Cement Co. Ltd.

b. If the addressee is a person, the writer should pay attention to the title. It should be written like this:

The individual’s courtesy title: Ms, Mrs, Miss, Mr, Dr, Sir (in the order of the increasing social status)

Full name or professional title: Manager, Director, General Manager

Post and rank

The i nstitution’s name

The full address

5. Attention Note*

This part is also not a necessary one. It is used when mainly written to the specific department or person of one bank. The attention note is written either flash with left margin or centered while it is 2 to 4 lines below the inside address.

For example:

ATTN: Mr. Sarak Daces

Attention of Mr Sarah Daces

Attention: Mr Sarah Daces

6. Salutation

The salutation is the friendly greeting that precedes before the main body of the letter. It is typed 2 to 4 lines below the inside address. It is commonly use "Dear Sir /

Sirs" as the British Style and "Gentlemen" as the American Style. Please don't use "Dear Gentlemen" or "Gentleman". And if you are familiar with the receiver, then you can the salutation like: "Dear Mr. XXX" or "Dear Mrs.XXX". Sometimes, "Dear Mr. President" or "Dear Mr. Chairman" will be used in a letter to individuals with some ranks or titles.

7. Subjects

The subject of the international financial correspondence gives the main introduction of the content of the bank letter with a few key words, which is placed on the top of the body of the letter. The subject can flash with left margin or centered and underline it. But it isn't permitted to write in block letter while underlined.

The subject is 2 to 4 lines below the salutation. It can be wrote in the following styles:

Our new test key

OUR NEW TEST KEY

8. Body of letter

Body of letter is the mainly part of the letter, it contains the essential information the writer want to pass to the addressee and as well, is an expansion of the subjects. The body of letter is printed 2 to 4 lines below the subjects. There three parts of the body of the letter.

① Opening paragraph (sentence)

The opening paragraph shows the senders acknowledge receipt of the letter (fax, cable, telex) or intentions a certain matter appeared in the previous letter or the subject. It can begin like:

We are very pleased to learn from the letter of ……;

We are pleased to note that ……;

We thank you for letter dated (Date) about ……;

This is the reply to your letter ……;

In response to your letter of ……, we wish to……;

And so on.

② Purpose paragraph(s)

It is the chief part of the letter to state the factors or ask the receiver to do something, which can be only one paragraph or several paragraphs.

Meanwhile, the second-page heading is required to follow the following requirements:

The send-page heading is asked to contain the date, the name of the sender's bank and the page number. There are two styles, here are the examples:

a. Horizontal form

CITIBANK N.A. -2- Nov. 28,1996

b. V ertical forrm

CITIBANK N.A.

Nov.28, 1996

Page 2

③ Closing paragraphs (sentence)

At the end of the body of the letter, it shows the writer's wishes, expectations on future actions.

For example:

We assure you of our sincere service and look forward to your favorable reply at an early date.

We expect your cooperation in this respect and thank you in advance for your kind assistance.

We are confident the conclusion of the arrangement will lead to a consistent development of business between our two banks.

We wish you a greater business volume.

And so on.

9. Complimentary Close

The complimentary close is merely a polite way of ending a bank letter. And it should correspond to the salutation. It is placed two to four lines below the last line of the body of the letter and then it can start form the middle or the right side of the page. There are three forms:

a. The British style

The salutation usually can be "Dear Sirs", when the complimentary close should be "Faithfully Y ours" or "Y ours Faithfully".

b. The American Style

"Truly Y ours" or "Y ours Truly" is commonly used in the American style to match the salutation like "Gentlemen".

c. The writer and addressee is known to each other.

The personal and the less formal letter which opens with "Dear Mr. XXX" should go with the complimentary close as "Y ours Sincerely" or "Sincerely Y ours".

10. Signature

All the letter should be signed so as to show the realism of the letter as well as be polite to the receiver. The signature area is located two to four lines below the complimentary close line. The followings are examples to three kinds of signatures: a. Signed by oneself

Y ours Faithfully.

CITIBANK N.A.

(signature)

Jackson Brown

General Manager

b. Signed by the assistant or the secretary

Y ours Faithfully.

(signature)

Tom Huorison

Assistant to Mr Jackson Brown

Vice President.

c. Signed by others who aren't agents

Y ours Faithfully.

For General Manager

(signature)

Zhou Tao

11. Identification Mark*

The identification mark is not a necessary one. This is used as the reference initials and mainly used by the writers. The mark is made by the first letter of the first name or the writer and typist's initial. It is placed 2 to 4 lines below the signature.

For example:

JS/SR (John Smith / Shealy Rease)

GW:GP (George Willim : Grece Parason)

12. Enclosure Notation*

It is an summary of the attachment to the letter of the bank. And the enclosure notation is placed 2 to 4 lines below the identification mark if it has any.

For example:

a. 2 Encs, 4 Encs

b. Encls (2), Encls (4)

c. Encls: 2 Invoices

1 B/Loading

1 Product Certificate

13. Carben Copy Notation*

For example:

C.C: George William

CC: Bank of China

C/C: Bank of China

Copy to John Smith

Copies to John Smith

14. Postscript*

It is required to be placed 2 to 4 lines below the carbon copy notation. And it is flash with left margin. The postscript should begin with "P.S" or "p.s".

Then, the bank letter is finished and can be sent out. The parts with "*" means

that this part is not indispensable in the international international financial correspondence.

III. Three styles:

"Block Style", "Indented Style" and "Semi-indented Style" are the components of the three styles. The usage of the three styles can be listed in the following table:

BLOCK Style INDENTED

Style SEMI-INDENTED Style

（1）Letter Head L L Indented 2-3 letters （2）Date L R R

（3）Reference* L L L

（4）Inside Address L L Indented 2-3 letters （5）Attention Note* L L L

（6）Salutation L L L

（7）Subjects L Centered Centered

（8）Body of letter L Each paragraph

indented 3-5

words Each paragraph indented 3-5 words

（9）Complimentary

Close

L R R （10）Signature L R R

（11）Identification

L L L

Mark*

L L L

（12）Enclosure

Notation*

（13）Carben Copy

L L L

Notation*

（14）Postscript* L L L

"L" refers to that the part is flash with left margin.

"R" refers to that the part is flash with right margin.

While writing, the 14 parts that listed is highly required to be wrote in the right order. And the whole letter should be clear, simple and well ordered.

IV. My opinion:

The form of the letter of the bank is so highly required for the letter of the bank is always wrote under the conditions like establishing business relationships, asking for temporary services, consulting information and so on. With the said fourteen parts and the three styles, it is the base for us to write the typical letters for the subjects like Agency Relationship, Credit Inquiring Business, Accounting Business, Settlement for International Trade and so on. To fix the reality with the theory is the following thing that we need to handle for master the letter of the bank.

In my mind, the international financial correspondence gives me such

impressions:

First, the usage of the words is polite as well as alienated. In order to make a good impression on the receiving party is highly required. The words like "Mr" "Dear" "Gentlemen" "Sincerely" and other polite expressions are widely used in the whole test. And it is on the serious situations, so the body of the letter is alienated without emotional expressions.

Second, the form is highly limited. It can be details to fourteen parts and three styles, even the headings, endings as well as the title have a few kinds like British style or American style.

Third, the letter of the bank is highly professional. The words and phrases used in the passage is mainly from the professional vocabulary and sometimes they are the words that have a long history, so the usage of the some words is different from that today.

After a semester of studying on the bank letter, I know that the solid foundation in English is the basis and the key of writing a good bank letter. And the international financial correspondence is such a basic one in the multinational communications.