Support the rapid development of new business formats and reduce the risk of exchange rate fluctuations
Cross-border RMB settlement "upgrade"
As a new driving force for stabilizing foreign trade, new business formats are receiving more financial support.After the General Office of the Ministry of Commerce issued the "Notice on Making Good Use of the Service Trade Innovation and Development Guidance Fund to Support the Development of New Trade Formats and New Models" in March, the People's Bank of China recently issued the "Notice on Supporting Cross-border RMB Settlement in New Foreign Trade Formats", aiming at In taking pragmatic measures to support banks and payment institutions to better serve the development of new foreign trade formats.
The interviewed industry insiders believe that supporting cross-border RMB settlement in new forms of foreign trade will help accelerate the development of new forms and models of foreign trade, inject new momentum into foreign trade, and will also promote the pace of RMB internationalization through new forms of business, new models and new channels.
Solve the pain points in the development of new foreign trade formats
It is understood that the market transaction entities involved in the "Notice" include cross-border e-commerce, market procurement trade, overseas warehouses and foreign trade comprehensive service enterprises and other new foreign trade business operators, as well as consumers purchasing goods or services.From January 7th to 22nd, the "Notice" was publicly solicited for comments.After it was officially issued recently, the "Notice" will take effect from July 21.
The release of the "Notice" will bring new opportunities for the development of the above-mentioned new forms of foreign trade.Taking cross-border e-commerce as an example, Zhang Zhouping, director of the cross-border e-commerce department of the e-commerce research center of Netease, said in an interview with a reporter from the International Business Daily that foreign exchange collection and settlement in the cross-border e-commerce industry has always been one of the pain points of enterprises.Because overseas consumers pay in foreign currencies such as US dollars, companies need to exchange money when they return the money, and there are related risks and profit compression caused by exchange rate changes.The cross-border RMB settlement will help cross-border e-commerce companies reduce the relevant risks and losses caused by foreign exchange collection and settlement, and will also help enterprises to conduct more standardized operations.
Judging from the main content of the "Notice", it mainly includes four aspects: first, to increase support for new foreign trade formats, and to improve policies related to cross-border RMB business in new foreign trade formats such as cross-border e-commerce; The scope of overseas business processing has been expanded from trade in goods and services to the current account; the third is to clarify the business development and filing requirements of relevant business entities such as banks and payment institutions; Data submission and other requirements, consolidate the business development responsibilities of banks and payment institutions, and prevent and control business risks.
In this regard, Ma Ruichao, a macro analyst at China Merchants Securities, said that in the current context of stabilizing the economy, increasing efforts to support the development of new forms of foreign trade will help promote the stability and improvement of foreign trade.The relevant measures in the "Notice" can firstly support the development of new forms of foreign trade and new models, and better cope with various payment and settlement risks; secondly, it can reduce the adverse impact of exchange rate fluctuations on enterprises and play an important role in stabilizing foreign trade. effect.
At present, the rapid development of new forms of foreign trade and new models has become an important force in stabilizing foreign trade.According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, China's cross-border e-commerce import and export scale will reach 1.98 trillion yuan in 2021, an increase of nearly 10 times in five years; the scale of market procurement trade will increase five times in six years, and the export volume in 2021 will hit a new record high.In addition, in 2021, there will be more than 1,500 foreign trade comprehensive service enterprises, more than 2,000 overseas warehouses, and more than 130 bonded maintenance projects for processing trade.
Zhao Ping, vice president of the Research Institute of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said in an interview with a reporter from the International Business Daily that new forms of foreign trade and new models are booming, especially under the influence of the global spread of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, which has become an important new driving force for stabilizing foreign trade, and is playing an increasingly important role. important role.Improving the policy system and industrial support for new formats and models of foreign trade is conducive to promoting the overall quality and upgrading of foreign trade.
Corporate dividends gradually landed
"At present, most of the cross-border e-commerce small and micro enterprises' foreign trade receipts are still mainly in US dollars, euros, and yen. As the exchange rate fluctuations of these foreign currencies increase, they have to bear higher risks of foreign exchange settlement losses." The relevant person in charge of the cross-border payment service company said that the recent currency exchange rates of many countries have fluctuated sharply, and the profits of cross-border e-commerce companies will be swallowed up during foreign exchange settlement.
Regarding the release of the "Notice", people in the industry believe that at present, not only has the rapid development of new foreign trade formats greatly increased the demand for cross-border RMB settlement, but also with the extraordinary contraction of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy, the RMB, one of the international reserve currencies, can be used to a certain extent. to fill the market vacancy caused by the return of the dollar."Therefore, this is a good time to promote the use of RMB for settlement, and it is also conducive to accelerating the pace of RMB internationalization."
Zhang Zhouping said that the use of RMB settlement plays an important role in the development of cross-border e-commerce.For example, the related complex processes and intermediate links of payment and settlement can be reduced; the security of funds can be more effectively guaranteed, the risk of exchange rate fluctuations can be better avoided, and multiple effects such as cost reduction and efficiency increase can be produced.
At present, some cross-border e-commerce companies have benefited from RMB settlement.According to the latest data released by the Shenzhen Central Sub-branch of the People's Bank of China, as of the end of May, banks and payment institutions within Shenzhen had handled a total of 532.37 billion yuan in cross-border e-commerce RMB settlement, benefiting 81,000 cross-border e-commerce enterprises.
At the same time, Zhang Zhouping also believes that there are still certain threshold requirements for institutions that provide cross-border RMB settlement, and may not be able to meet the needs of all cross-border enterprises in the short term.After the implementation of the "Notice", it is believed that this situation is expected to be effectively changed.
A banker said that in the past, the bank's cross-border trade collection and payment system was mainly for large foreign trade enterprises, and it was not suitable for the high-frequency, small-value, and fragmented business characteristics of small and micro foreign trade enterprises such as cross-border e-commerce. The cooperation of third-party payment institutions in the fields of cross-border RMB settlement business in new foreign trade formats is not smooth enough.The implementation of the "Notice" may expand the space for technical cooperation between banks and payment institutions, and can better launch services that benefit enterprises and support the development of new business forms such as cross-border e-commerce.
