What is the difference between restricted LC and confirmed LC?

Answer 1

A confirmed letter of credit is one where the exporter's bank asks for additional guarantee from another bank of its choice that if the buyer's bank is unable to honour it's obligations then the confirming bank will make the payment on the behalf of the buyer's bank. Here, the confirming bank may be in the same country as the exporter or a well reputed international bank.

A restricted letter of credit is one in which the negotiation can only be done by the bank which is chosen by the bank issuing the LC. Authorization from the issuing bank to pay the beneficiary is restricted to a specific nominated bank. Meaning is that negotiating bank is only the bank which is nominated and no other bank is authorized to do the valuation of the LC other than the nominated bank. Thus, whereas the confirmed LC is one which requires authentication of payment of negotiated value(value arrived at by the negotiating bank) by the confirming bank( the respective trade documents along with the LC will pass from negotiating bank to confirming bank so that it can take note of the quantum of guarantee), the restricted LC only requires the valuation to be done by a specifically nominated negotiating bank. Here, in case of restricted LC, there is no guarantee involved from another bank as such to the exporter's bank that payment will be made. That guarantee can be there only when the LC is confirmed.

Also, restricted LC is mainly focused on valuation of the LC, whereas confirmed LC is focused on additional payment guarantee from a bank of repute.
I guess that should be the difference