1. cross-border electronic commerce started late and developed rapidly.
Under the background of the global economic slowdown of 20 1 1, the overall scale of cross-border electronic commerce's small-scale export business in China exceeded 1000 billion US dollars, accounting for only 0.5% of the total export volume of 20 1 1, but the year-on-year growth rate exceeded 100%. In 20 1 1 year, the number of e-commerce users in China increased to 203 million. If the number of cross-border e-commerce users accounted for 13% of the total number of e-commerce merchants in China in 2009, the number of cross-border e-commerce users in 20 1 1 year reached 23.69 million. Judging from the development speed of e-commerce, the actual growth of users in cross-border electronic commerce should be much higher than the above calculation.
2. cross-border electronic commerce and payment will become new profit points for enterprises.
According to the "20 1 1 Global Payment Report" jointly issued by Capgemini (consulting company), RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) and Efma (European Financial Market Association), the global electronic payment transaction volume in 20 13 years is expected to reach $65,438 +0.6 trillion, which is 20/kloc. The huge space and potential profit space for the development of foreign trade e-commerce have attracted the attention of domestic foreign-related economic entities. According to the statistics of relevant institutions, since 2008, the proportion of traditional segments of domestic e-commerce and payment has been shrinking. In 20 1 1 year, the total proportion of online payment in aviation, telecommunications and other fields dropped from 72.9% in 201year to 67.2%, and it is expected that this proportion will drop to 48% in 201year. At the same time, with the active layout of 20 10-20 1 major e-commerce platforms in the application of financial products such as education, enterprise payment, insurance, stocks and funds, the pattern of domestic e-commerce payment field will gradually stabilize. In the face of fierce market competition and the entry of overseas e-commerce platforms, the cross-border market is undoubtedly the next competition point for e-commerce and payment.
3. There are various ways of cross-border electronic payment settlement.
The flow of foreign exchange funds in cross-border electronic payment business inevitably involves the settlement and sale of foreign exchange and the collection and payment of foreign exchange. Judging from the current development of payment business, China's cross-border electronic payment settlement methods mainly include cross-border payment and foreign exchange purchase (including third-party foreign exchange purchase payment, overseas e-commerce accepting RMB payment, and remittance through domestic banks). ) and cross-border income settlement methods (including third-party settlement of foreign exchange, remittance through domestic banks, split settlement of foreign exchange inflows in the name of settlement or individuals, and cross-border settlement of foreign exchange through underground banks, etc. ).
Second, there are defects in the management of cross-border electronic commerce and payment services in China.
Although the rapid development of cross-border electronic commerce and payment business has brought huge profit space to enterprises, improper management may also bring huge risks to enterprises. At present, the management defects of cross-border electronic commerce and payment services in China are mainly reflected in the following aspects:
1. Policy defects
(1) Ownership management of e-commerce transactions
From the analysis of e-commerce transaction forms, pure electronic transactions belong to the category of service trade to a great extent, and it is generally recognized that they are managed according to service trade in GATS Rules. For those who only complete orders and sign contracts through e-commerce, but want to transport them to the buyer's place by traditional means of transportation, it belongs to the category of goods trade and the management category of GATT. In addition, for special types of e-commerce, it is neither obvious service trade nor obvious goods trade, such as providing electronic products (such as culture, software, entertainment products, etc. Through e-commerce, there are still great differences in the international community whether this e-commerce transaction belongs to service trade or goods trade. As China has not yet promulgated the Measures for the Administration of Foreign Exchange in Service Trade and the Regulations on the Administration of Foreign Exchange in cross-border electronic commerce, it is even more difficult to grasp the scope of foreign exchange transaction ownership management involved in e-commerce.
(2) Market access of the trading subject.
Cross-border electronic commerce and payment services can break through the limitation of time and space, radiate business to all corners of the world, and make economic and financial information and capital chains increasingly concentrated on data platforms. Once the trading subject lacks sufficient financial strength or has problems such as illegal operation, credit crisis, system failure and information leakage, it will lead to the risk of foreign exchange funds for customers. Therefore, it is extremely important and urgent to standardize the market access of cross-border electronic commerce and its payment business participants.
(3) The foreign exchange management and supervision responsibilities of the payment institution.
First of all, payment institutions undertake some foreign exchange policy implementation and management responsibilities in cross-border foreign exchange revenue and expenditure management, similar to designated foreign exchange banks, which are both executors and supervisors of foreign exchange management policies; Secondly, payment institutions mainly provide monetary fund payment and clearing services for e-commerce transaction subjects, which belong to a kind of payment and clearing organization and are different from financial institutions. How to manage and locate the cross-border foreign exchange revenue and expenditure services provided by such non-financial institutions urgently needs the State Administration of Foreign Exchange to clarify the laws and regulations and standardize the system.
2. Operational bottlenecks
(1) The authenticity of the transaction is difficult to verify.
The virtual nature of e-commerce directly makes it difficult for foreign exchange supervision departments to examine the authenticity of cross-border electronic commerce transactions and the legality of payment funds, which provides a way for domestic and foreign abnormal funds to handle income and expenditure through cross-border electronic commerce.
(2) It is difficult to declare the balance of payments.
On the one hand, through the electronic payment platform, there is no direct cross-border capital flow in the bank accounts of domestic and foreign e-commerce, and it often takes 7 to 10 days for the payment platform to complete the substantive transactions in the fund settlement, which makes it difficult to implement the requirements of the transaction subject for reporting foreign receipts and payments. On the other hand, different transaction methods also have a certain impact on the main body of balance of payments declaration. If the actual foreign exchange purchaser is the transaction subject, the transaction subject should declare the balance of payments, but it is difficult to implement as mentioned above; Unified payment method for offline purchase of foreign exchange The actual purchaser is the payment institution, which can be the main body of balance of payments declaration. However, this declaration method is difficult to reflect the essence of each transaction, which increases the difficulty of foreign exchange supervision.
(3) Lack of foreign exchange reserve account management
With the development of cross-border electronic commerce, the problem of foreign exchange reserve management has become increasingly prominent, but there are still no clear regulations on foreign exchange reserve management in China. For example, whether foreign exchange reserves belong to current account category or capital account category (according to trade credit management); The opening of foreign exchange reserve accounts, the scope of income and expenditure, and the submission of income and expenditure data; There is no unified management standard for whether the local and foreign currency reserves of the same institution can offset each other and settle foreign exchange, which easily makes foreign exchange reserves outside the foreign exchange supervision system.
Three, China cross-border electronic commerce and payment business management system construction suggestions.
1. Management Policy Level
(1) Define the business scope and opening sequence of cross-border electronic commerce trading. Considering the current situation of China's foreign exchange management system, it is suggested that China's cross-border electronic commerce and payment should follow the order of current account first, capital account later, trade in goods and services first, virtual transaction later, export first and import later. Electronic payment institutions that provide cross-border payment services should follow the management principle of opening domestic institutions first and cautiously opening overseas institutions, limit the scope of cross-border foreign exchange receipts and payments for trade in goods and services, temporarily prohibit cross-border foreign exchange flows in current transfer projects and capital projects through electronic payment channels, and do a good job in supervision and management of payment institutions.
(2) Establish the qualification registration and market access system for foreign exchange settlement and sale of payment institutions in cross-border electronic commerce.
On the one hand, domestic entities (except individuals) engaged in cross-border electronic commerce are required to register relevant information in the foreign exchange bureau before they can carry out cross-border electronic commerce transactions, and establish a registration system for cross-border electronic commerce's entity qualifications. On the other hand, the foreign exchange business qualification, business scope and foreign exchange business supervision of payment institutions should refer to the market access standards for foreign exchange designated banks to handle foreign exchange settlement and sale business, establish a cross-border payment business access mechanism, and grant foreign exchange settlement and sale market access qualifications to payment institutions with certain conditions. The foreign exchange bureau may entrust payment institutions to exercise some subrogation supervision functions within a certain scope, establish a responsibility mechanism between banks and payment institutions, and form a pattern of multi-party supervision and mutual supervision.
(3) Timely introduction of cross-border electronic commerce and foreign exchange payment management measures.
Incorporate cross-border electronic foreign exchange business into the regulatory system, and on the basis of the Measures for the Administration of Payment Services of Non-financial Institutions issued by the People's Bank of China, timely issue the Measures for the Administration of Foreign Exchange of cross-border electronic commerce and Electronic Payment, which makes unified and clear management provisions on cross-border electronic commerce's subject qualification, authenticity audit responsibility, nature of foreign exchange fund transactions, foreign exchange data management, foreign exchange receipts and payments statistics, etc.
2. Business operation level
(1) Incorporate cross-border electronic commerce and payment entities into the supervision system of foreign exchange entities. Combined with the change of the current supervision concept of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange from behavioral supervision to subject supervision, it is suggested that cross-border electronic commerce and payment transaction subjects should be included in the scope of foreign exchange subject supervision, and the existing subject supervision results should be fully utilized to implement classified management. First, when the trading entity in cross-border electronic commerce is a legal person institution, the foreign exchange bureau shall open the scope of cross-border electronic commerce differently according to the published evaluation and classification results of institutions. When an electronic payment institution handles cross-border revenue and expenditure business for e-commerce customers, it should first inquire about the category of the institution and then provide corresponding cross-border electronic payment services. Second, when the domestic transaction subject is an individual, the payment institution should improve the customer authentication mechanism in addition to implementing the individual's annual foreign exchange purchase settlement limit, and refuse to handle cross-border electronic revenue and expenditure business for individuals on the "attention list". The third is to bring payment institutions into the scope of supervision of foreign exchange entities and implement assessment and classified management.
(two) effective statistics and monitoring of cross-border electronic commerce's foreign exchange revenue and expenditure data.
It is suggested that domestic institutions providing e-commerce trade, whether through the third-party payment platform or not, should open current account foreign exchange accounts to handle cross-border foreign exchange receipts and payments, and mark special signs on the data of RMB and foreign exchange receipts and payments in cross-border electronic commerce, so as to facilitate the statistics and monitoring of cross-border electronic commerce's income and expenditure data. At the same time, in the case that the personal settlement and sale system does not provide an interface for electronic payment institutions, it is agreed that payment institutions should adopt the mode of purchasing foreign exchange first and then recording the settlement and sale information again. The foreign exchange bureau should strengthen the statistics, monitoring and management of cross-border electronic commerce's foreign exchange receipts and payments data, conduct on-site inspections on a regular basis, achieve the management goal of combining on-site and off-site inspections, and strengthen supervision.
(3) Clearly standardize the reporting subjects and reporting methods of balance of payments statistics.
First, if the domestic transaction entity is a legal person institution, the reporting entity of balance of payments statistics should be designated as a legal person institution, and the reporting time is the cross-border fund receipt and payment date. The declaration method is that the legal person institution voluntarily declares the balance of payments at the designated foreign exchange bank; Second, if the domestic transaction subject is an individual, it is suggested that the reporting subject should be a payment institution, which will collect the data of cross-border foreign exchange receipts and payments handled by the individual on the same day and then go to the bank to declare the balance of payments, and keep the transaction list and other relevant information for future reference.
(4) standardize the management of foreign exchange reserves
It is clearly stipulated that electronic payment institutions can access foreign exchange reserves through special accounts for foreign exchange reserves. The foreign exchange bureau shall standardize the scope of foreign exchange receipts and payments in the special account for foreign exchange reserves, and bring the data of foreign exchange receipts and payments in the special account into the off-site supervision system for monitoring. It is suggested that the foreign exchange reserve fund should be managed under the capital account, and the payment institution that collects the foreign exchange reserve fund should regularly submit the income and expenditure of the reserve fund to the foreign exchange bureau and incorporate it into the foreign debt index of the designated foreign exchange bank.