BANK GUARANTEE AS A MEAN OF SECURITY IN FREIGHT FORWARDING

Abstract

The evolution of the freight forwarding as a business concept and the tendency of
increasing the obligations of the freight forwarder, increasing the quality and quantity of
the services that are provided by the freight forwarder creates the urge of using different
financial instruments to be able to respond to the demand of the clients. The obligation of
the freight forwarder to pay the customs fees towards the state on behalf of the client creates
the opportunity to use the bank guarantee in the freight forwarding. The customs fees are a
serious attack of the liquidity of the traders and their “coverage” with a bank guarantee from
the freight forwarder is an efficient method to accelerate the customs procedure and to provide
the state with the customs expenses. Using the bank guarantee during the import customs
procedure positions the freight forwarder in the middle between the client and the state, not
only formally as a legal representative of the trader, but also as a crucial creditor of their client
and a guarantor payer in favor of the state. Therefore, the author of this paper throughout
an analysis of the role of the freight forwarder in the customs procedure and the functions
that they provide on one side and the legal nature of the bank guarantee as well as the legal
relations that are created with its issuing as the most efficient method for payment security
on the other side, gives an answer why is the bank guarantee the most efficient and most used
method for securing the customs debt in the customs procedure.