This section sets out the principal areas in which Mohamad M. Burjak’s experience is concentrated across international trade finance and related banking operations. It brings together long operational practice, documentary analysis, instrument drafting, policy and control design, professional learning, and the analysis of matters in which rules, documents or facts have become disputed or uncertain.
The approach is not to treat each instrument as an isolated banking product. It is to understand it as part of a wider commercial transaction in which sale terms, payment, transport, insurance, documents, risk and the obligations of several parties must work together.
Documentary Credits
The experience spans the documentary credit lifecycle: structuring and drafting the credit, advising and amendment, presentation and examination, through to honour or refusal and the handling of discrepancies and resulting issues.
The credit is considered both on its own terms and within the rules and practices that govern it, while maintaining the essential distinction between obligations created by the instrument itself and those arising from the underlying sale, transport, insurance or other surrounding relationships.
The more difficult issues often arise not simply from whether a document complies, but from the way the credit itself has been constructed: a condition that conflicts with another provision, a document requested in a form that does not reflect commercial reality, a timetable that cannot readily be performed, or wording that shifts risk to a party without that result having been intended.
The review therefore extends to a more fundamental question: does the credit accurately translate the transaction it was intended to support into terms that can actually be performed, or does it contain the seeds of a problem that will surface later at shipment, presentation or payment?
Demand Guarantees
Experience in demand guarantees extends from identifying the purpose of the instrument and determining its structure and wording through to the analysis of demands and questions concerning conditions, presentation, rejection or payment.
Demand guarantees require particular drafting discipline because apparently straightforward wording may materially determine the scope of the undertaking, its expiry or the conditions governing a demand. Review therefore focuses closely on wording and its practical effect, while recognising both the independence of the demand guarantee and the commercial circumstances in which it was issued.
The work also extends to counter-guarantees. It is not enough for the guarantee issued to the beneficiary and the counter-guarantee supporting the issuing bank to be sound when examined separately. Their relationship must also be tested. Differences in the scope of undertaking, demand conditions, amounts, dates or documentary requirements can leave one party exposed under one instrument without an equivalent right of recourse under the other. Parallel review of the two instruments is therefore particularly important in drafting, amendments and demand situations.
The same expertise applies where there are indications of misuse, an unexpected demand, or tension between the wording of the guarantee and the surrounding commercial circumstances, allowing the position to be analysed before an operational or legal course is determined.
Documentary Collections
This area covers documentary collections, collection instructions, the movement and release of documents, payment and delivery conditions, and the limits and responsibilities associated with the role of each bank.
More difficult issues can arise when collection instructions do not fit the terms of the transaction or the nature of the documents, when delivery or payment instructions change after documents have been dispatched, or when payment or acceptance is delayed while the goods have already arrived and additional costs or risks are accumulating. In such cases, timing, document flows and the handling of subsequent instructions may become as important as the original collection instruction itself.
The focus is therefore on drafting and interpreting collection instructions accurately, understanding what each party can and cannot properly be expected to do, and assessing the practical consequences of decisions affecting documents, delivery and payment against the position of the goods, transport arrangements, costs and wider commercial risk.
Standby Letters of Credit
Experience with standby letters of credit covers their particular function between payment and security structures, the drafting of their terms, presentation requirements, drawings, demands and expiry.
The specialist distinction is important. A standby should not simply be approached as an extension of either commercial documentary credit practice or demand-guarantee practice. Its structure, purpose and the application of the rules and practices governing it may require a materially different analysis.
Documentary Disputes and Independent Analysis
Once a transaction becomes disputed, the issue may no longer be resolved by reading a single clause or rule. The outcome can depend on the wording of the instrument, the documents presented, the sequence of events, timing, and what each party did—or was required to do—at the relevant stage.
Independent analysis in such matters brings the facts, instrument, documents, applicable rules and banking practice into a single structured examination. The objective is to identify the actual point of difficulty and separate it from assumptions or positions that may have formed around the dispute.
This expertise can also be applied alongside legal counsel where a dispute requires specialist banking and documentary understanding. The role remains one of specialist trade finance analysis rather than legal advice.
Its particular value arises where the legal issue itself cannot be understood properly without first understanding what happened—or should have happened—within a specialised banking or documentary process.
Instrument Drafting and Interpretation
In trade finance, drafting is not simply a matter of language. A single expression may create or qualify a condition, introduce more than one possible interpretation, or make performance materially more difficult than intended.
The work therefore includes reviewing the wording of documentary credits, demand guarantees, collection instructions and related instruments to determine whether they express the intended commercial result, can be performed in practice, and avoid introducing unintended inconsistencies between the transaction, its parties and its documents.
The same discipline applies when wording later becomes disputed: individual phrases are not interpreted in isolation from the instrument as a whole or from the rules and practice governing it.
Transaction Structuring and Documentary Terms
A transaction can become problematic before any documentary credit or demand guarantee is issued.
The way payment is agreed, the documents selected, delivery terms defined, and obligations allocated among buyer, seller, banks, carriers and insurers can determine whether a transaction proceeds smoothly, becomes difficult to perform, or incurs costs that could have been avoided.
The expertise therefore extends to reviewing the transaction structure itself: whether payment terms, documentary requirements and the selected banking instrument operate coherently together, and whether the intended allocation of risk and cost has actually been reflected in the contractual and banking arrangements.
The objective is not to add more conditions. It is to create a clearer and more workable structure with fewer unintended conflicts, surprises, risks and costs.
Major Projects, Energy and Contracting
Professional advisory experience has included work for major regional companies involved in energy, electricity, industrial projects and large-scale construction.
In this environment, reviewing a documentary credit or demand guarantee only after it has been drafted may be too late. Important risks can originate in the commercial terms of the contract itself. The work has therefore included reviewing payment, security and delivery provisions in relation to the execution stages of the project, and then drafting or reviewing the associated credits and guarantees so that the contract, banking instrument and execution mechanics operate coherently.
This becomes particularly important in complex projects, where a disconnect between the contract and the banking instrument may delay performance, make drawing or payment more difficult, complicate release of security, or create exposure to a demand whose implications were not fully appreciated when the transaction was agreed.
The purpose of the review is to identify these gaps early and translate the commercial requirements of the project into banking instruments that are precise, workable and less likely to become a source of later dispute.
Fraud Risk and Misuse of Instruments
Fraud in international trade transactions does not always present itself in an obvious form. Warning signs may lie in an apparently routine document, an unexplained change in the movement of goods or parties, unusual drafting, a mismatch between the nature of the transaction and the documents required, or operational behaviour that does not fit the commercial context.
The professional approach is not to presume wrongdoing. It is to understand the transaction deeply enough to recognise when something does not fit its commercial or documentary logic.
Fraud-risk awareness therefore depends on a combined understanding of the instrument, documents, operations, trade flows and banking practice. The deeper the contextual understanding, the greater the ability to distinguish a meaningful warning signal from a merely unusual feature.
Trade Finance Banking Operations
The experience extends beyond individual transactions to the operating environment in which large volumes of transactions are processed.
It includes the review of workflows from customer application through review, approval, issuance, amendment, examination, communications and settlement, through to closure, record retention and follow-up.
It also encompasses trade finance process re-engineering, redesign of SWIFT architecture and related controls, and the introduction of electronic processing into trade finance, with technology used to improve the operating model without weakening control or professional judgement.
The emphasis is on removing unnecessary complexity, identifying decisions that should remain subject to professional judgement rather than becoming mechanical steps, and designing controls around the actual risks of the process.
Policies, Procedures and Operational Controls
A sound policy does more than restate international rules, and a sound procedure does more than describe a sequence of steps.
The specialist task is to translate rules, risks and professional decisions into an operating framework that can be applied consistently: who decides, what must be reviewed, when processing should stop, when escalation is required, and what must be evidenced and retained.
This includes the design and review of policies and procedures, their relationship with credit policy, governance and internal controls, and the identification of gaps that may create risk, unnecessary delay or inconsistent treatment across teams.
Experience also extends to frameworks for more specialised products and structures, including Factoring, Reverse Factoring, Forfaiting, Back-to-Back Letters of Credit, Transferable Letters of Credit, Assignment of Proceeds and other trade finance structures.
Digital Trade Finance and Technology
Experience in trade finance digitisation reaches back to the earlier stages of electronic trade processing and includes work with electronic solutions for documentary credits and related operations, together with the control frameworks required for their effective use within a bank.
The underlying principle is that technology does not correct a poorly designed process simply by automating it. The process must first be sound, decision and control points must be clear, and the organisation must determine what can appropriately be automated and where professional judgement still needs to remain.
Nor should automation be measured by how many steps have become electronic. Its value lies in whether it materially improves the service delivered. Review therefore extends to field design, automated validation and cross-validation of transaction data, approval sequencing, exception handling, removal of unnecessary waiting points and clear ownership of each stage. These elements make it possible to establish measurable turnaround times and service levels (SLAs) that reflect both customer expectations and the complexity of the transaction.
A customer requesting issuance of a documentary credit, demand guarantee or counter-guarantee is ultimately less concerned with whether the bank’s internal process is digital than with whether the instrument is issued accurately and within the time promised. The objective is therefore to combine speed with control: reducing issuance and review time where steps do not add value, while preserving professional judgement and effective controls where they matter.
Professional Learning and Capability Development
Professional learning in trade finance should not be reduced to memorising rules or reproducing their text. Its real test is the ability to apply them when facts are incomplete, documents are imperfect, or more than one interpretation initially appears possible.
The learning approach therefore develops professional reasoning: how to read an instrument, identify the real issue, distinguish a governing rule from an operational habit, recognise the consequences of drafting, and explain a decision in a manner that can withstand professional scrutiny.
This approach is relevant not only to trade finance and operations practitioners within banks, but also to risk professionals, lawyers dealing with contracts or disputes involving specialised banking instruments, and companies whose business depends on documentary credits, demand guarantees, collections and related payment and security mechanisms.
Companies and International Trade
Specialist trade finance expertise is not confined to banks.
An importer or exporter may assume unnecessary risk or cost because a documentary credit does not serve the transaction it was meant to support, because a required document cannot realistically be obtained, because a demand guarantee does not reflect the commercial undertaking intended, or because payment terms do not fit the supply cycle.
Effective review therefore begins at the contracting stage. How have the payment terms been constructed? What security is required? Does it fit the transaction and its stages of performance? Can the commercial agreement be translated into a banking instrument that works as intended without introducing an obligation or cost that was never properly anticipated?
Cost also extends beyond the contract wording itself. The cost of a documentary credit or demand guarantee is not necessarily confined to the headline issuance commission. It may be affected by amount and tenor, amendments and extensions, confirmation or other forms of bank coverage, the way the instrument has been structured, and how the transaction develops over its life. An unsuitable structure—or repeated amendments that could have been avoided by better drafting at the outset—can generate significant cumulative cost that was not apparent when the commercial contract was signed.
Specialist review therefore considers cost and risk together: creating more coherent commercial and banking terms from the outset, understanding how the cost of the instrument is generated, approaching the bank with a clearer view of the required structure, and avoiding unnecessary amendments, tenors or requirements without weakening the protection the transaction genuinely needs.
The objective is not simply to identify the least expensive instrument. It is to structure the transaction so that commercial purpose, protection, operational efficiency and cost are properly balanced—and so that details which could have been addressed at the outset do not later become additional expense, delay or dispute.