What each field actually does
Consignee controls delivery. On a straight bill it is a named company that takes the cargo on identification. On an order bill it is often 'TO ORDER' or 'TO ORDER OF [bank]', so title moves by endorsement of an original — the mechanism letters of credit rely on. Getting the consignee wrong is a cargo-control error: the terminal will not release to the company that expected the box.
Notify party is an instruction to send arrival notices, customs holds, and sometimes freight invoices. You can list more than one. A freight forwarder at destination, a customs broker, and the real importer can all be notify parties while the consignee remains 'to order of shipper' until originals are endorsed. Mixing the two fields is how a broker receives nothing and the importer finds the cargo on demurrage.
The letter-of-credit pattern
Under a typical documentary credit the consignee is the issuing bank (or 'to order of' that bank) so the bank holds title until documents are honoured. The notify party is the applicant — the buyer — so they can prepare customs and trucking. If the SI copies the buyer into the consignee box 'to save a step', the bank may refuse the documents, and the carrier may release against identity instead of against the original the bank thought it controlled.
After the credit is paid, the bank endorses the order bill to the buyer. Telex or express release is a separate decision: it speeds delivery once title is settled, but it does not replace getting consignee and notify right at SI cut.
House vs master — two consignees on one box
On an NVOCC move the master bill names the destination agent or the NVOCC as consignee so the agent can take delivery from the line. The house bill names the actual customer. Arrival notices therefore split: the line notifies the master consignee; the forwarder notifies the house consignee and house notify party. If both documents copy the same importer as consignee, the line may try to release to the importer while the NVOCC still needs to recover freight — a classic control-of-cargo fight.
Worked field check on a Shanghai–Los Angeles FCL sold FOB, house telex, master to agent: Shipper = origin exporter. Consignee (HBL) = US importer. Notify (HBL) = US customs broker. Consignee (MBL) = destination NVOCC agent. Notify (MBL) = same agent. If the SI puts the importer on the master consignee, the agent's hold on the box disappears.
Importer of record is a different seat
US customs cares who is importer of record on the entry, not who was notify party on the B/L. The IOR can be the consignee, a buyer not named on the B/L, or a non-resident principal using a licensed broker. ISF 'consignee' in the 10+2 data set is a CBP party role and must match the commercial reality, not a convenience copy-paste from the notify field. Alignment across SI, ISF, and entry is the desk's job; the B/L fields are where that alignment starts.