Case "TO ORDER OF SHIPPER" and "TO ORDER OF APPLICANT"

I have arranged the shipment to Japan for one of our buyer. We and the buyer agreed to use L/C for the order or trading. Before buyer instructs their bank to issue the L/C, they forwarded me the L/C draft for my checking.

During my reading and checking to the L/C draft, I found buyer wanted “TO ORDER OF SHIPPER “to be filled in the consignee’s column. This is making me to think two meanings when I instruct forwarder to arrange the B/L. The first meaning is "TO ORDER OF SHIPPER" wrote in consignee’s column. And the second meaning is TO ORDER OF our company name.

  

Finally, I decided the first choice or "TO ORDER OF SHIPPER" to be filled in the consignee's column on Bill of Lading. When I submitted all documents required to bank, Bank didn't found any discrepancy in Bill of Lading that I submitted to the bank.

To "TO ORDER OF APPLICANT" is something new for me and it’s seldom stated on an L/C. But, this was happened in our trade.

A buyer from Japan has changed their shipment manual concerning the consignee in Bill of Lading. They changed from "TO ORDER OF SHIPPER" becoming "TO ORDER OF APPLICANT". For our bank it’s something new, too.

I have followed the L/C, and I decided to fill in the consignee with "TO ORDER OF APPLICANT". Before the Bill of lading printed out, I have sent it to buyer to get their approval for the Bill of Lading content. Then buyer confirmed to the Bill of Lading.

After I collected and created all documents required as stated on L/C, I submitted the documents to our bank. Unfortunately, our bank found a discrepancy in Bill of Lading, specifically in consignee's column. The consignee should be TO ORDER OF “Applicant Name”. For example, let say the applicant name is ABC, then the consignee on Bill of Lading should be written with "TO ORDER OF ABC". This is because if we write the "TO ORDER OF APPLICANT", people who receive the Bill of lading will never know who is the consignee? So that the consignee name in details must be written on Bill of Lading.

Because of that, we got the discrepancy charges that will be deducted from the payment, and we have to persuade buyer to accept the discrepancy and release the payment when the documents arrived at their bank.