Import bill collection is the name banks use, mainly in their trade-services operations and product lists, for a documentary collection seen from the importer's side. The importer's bank receives shipping documents and a draft from the exporter's bank, notifies the importer, and releases the documents only when the importer pays or accepts the draft. The full mechanics, parties and the ICC's Uniform Rules for Collections (URC 522) are covered in the main entry.
The same transaction is booked as an export bill collection at the exporter's bank. On the import side the bank acts as the collecting or presenting bank, and it takes no payment risk of its own: unlike under a letter of credit, it does not promise to pay if the importer refuses.
Import bills may be presented on documents-against-payment terms or on documents against acceptance terms. A collection of a draft alone, without shipping documents, is a clean collection.