How We Work

How We Work

The same architecture, on every deal.

Documented counterparties. Executed SPA. Independent inspection. Payment against verified documents.

Twenty Arms structures and executes physical commodity transactions for buyers and sellers across the CIS, Europe, MENA, West Africa, and Asia. We move product. We are not a broker introduction service and we do not work on retainer.

The sequence below is the standard we hold to. It exists to protect commercial position on both sides and to give compliance teams a clean audit trail.

I
The Transaction Sequence

Six stages. No shortcuts.

1
Enquiry and Qualification

A buyer or seller approaches us with a commodity, tonnage, origin or destination, and an Incoterms basis. We come back within one to two business days with a feasibility view. Before any commercial paper is issued, both sides exchange company registration, director identification, and, where requested, a bank reference. Counterparties that cannot or will not produce these documents do not move past this stage.

2
Term Sheet and NCNDA

Once feasibility is confirmed, Twenty Arms issues a non-binding term sheet covering specification, tonnage, price basis, Incoterms, inspection, payment, and delivery window. An NCNDA is executed by every intermediary in the chain before the term sheet is circulated. No exceptions, no oral side-letters.

3
SPA and IMFPA

A full Sale and Purchase Agreement is drafted between principal buyer and principal seller and signed in counterpart. Governing law is English or Canadian; arbitration sits with the LCIA↗ or the ICC↗. In parallel, the IMFPA is executed to lock the commission position of every authorised intermediary on the deal. Commission terms are not disclosed inside the SPA. The IMFPA is its own contract, between the principals and the intermediaries.

4
Inspection at Loadport

The seller presents product for inspection at the agreed loading point. SGS↗, Bureau Veritas↗, or Intertek↗ is appointed as the inspecting authority. The inspection covers quantity, quality, packing, and marking against SPA specification. Twenty Arms does not call payment until the report is issued and accepted by the buyer.

Inspection comes before money. That is the rule, and it is not negotiable on our deals.
5
Payment

The buyer settles against verified shipping documents and the inspection certificate. We work with MT103 wire, LC at sight, and documentary collection, depending on what the parties agree at SPA stage. Twenty Arms banks with CIBC in Canada. Banking details are confirmed only by signed addendum to the SPA, on Twenty Arms letterhead, signed by our authorised signatory. Anything else, regardless of how it arrives, is not us.

6
Shipment and Title

Product loads, bills of lading issue, title passes at the contractual point. Original documents are couriered or transmitted electronically to the buyer or to the buyer's bank, depending on the payment method. The deal closes when the buyer takes the cargo and the documents reconcile.

II
What We Do Not Do

Practices we will not engage in

Most fraud in this market dresses itself up as a deal. The list below is what a legitimate counterparty should never see from a trading house, and what Twenty Arms will not do under any framing or any pressure. Tap any item for context.

  • Payment follows inspection. Any request for money before product has been independently verified is a red flag, regardless of how it is framed. Legitimate trading houses do not take deposits, compliance fees, or advance payments at any stage.
  • MT760 and MT799 are SWIFT messages routinely misused in fraud schemes to lock buyer funds before any product exists. A genuine deal stands on an SPA, an inspection, and a payment-against-documents structure — not on a blocking instrument issued before product is confirmed.
  • Beneficiary name must match the contracting entity exactly. Twenty Arms Inc. is the only name that should appear on an incoming wire instruction from this company. Any mismatch — however small — must be resolved by signed addendum before payment moves.
  • The inspection certificate is a condition precedent to payment on every Twenty Arms deal. A counterparty pushing to call funds before the inspection is accepted is signalling that the product, quantity, or quality will not survive scrutiny.
  • Every intermediary in a Twenty Arms transaction is named in a signed NCNDA before commercial terms circulate, and in the IMFPA before SPA execution. Unnamed intermediaries are not parties to the deal and have no standing on commissions or information rights.
  • POP packages contain seller-side documentation with real commercial and verification value. Releasing them to unverified buyers is how fraudsters re-package fictitious supply. Twenty Arms releases POP only after NDA execution and a demonstrated ability to perform on the buyer side.

If you have received a message claiming to be from Twenty Arms requesting any of the above, treat it as fraudulent and write to trading@twentyarms.com so we can confirm.

III
Banking & Compliance

How we bank, and what we hold to

Twenty Arms Inc. is incorporated in Canada and banks with CIBC. All counterparties pass standard KYC and AML review before SPA execution. We reserve the right to withdraw from any transaction where the documentation does not stand up, or where the structure of the deal does not stand up.

We do not refund advance fees, because we do not take them.

Full detail on our KYC requirements, accepted payment instruments, and fraud prevention standards is set out on the Compliance and Banking page.

Open a File trading@twentyarms.com

Write with your commodity, tonnage, origin or destination, and Incoterms basis. Attach company registration. We respond within one business day.