What is a Pre Advice?

When there are large transactions between two banks are involved, the risks involved are big too. So when one bank intends to send a large wire transfer to another bank, they first send out a pre advice notice to the receiving bank. So a pre advice is a message which one bank sends to another just to ensure that all important details related to the wire transfer such as routing etc are correct and also to check if the intended beneficiary maintains as account with the beneficiary’s bank or can otherwise take funds from that bank. Such an advice notifies the recipient that the buyer has opened a letter of credit of some amount for the beneficiary. The pre advice can be revocable or irrevocable. The advising bank just notifies the beneficiary without opening a advice of credit so that if the seller if wants to can proceed with the processing of the buyers order.