Cross-border e-commerce at the CIFTIS: Bank of Beijing launches comprehensive cross-border e-commerce financial service program

On September 4, at the "Cross-border E-commerce Forum" of the China E-commerce Conference of the China International Fair for Trade in Services, Li Wei, deputy president of the Beijing Bank's Urban Sub-center Branch, said that the Beijing Free Trade Zone Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Service Plan was officially released. The cross-border e-commerce comprehensive service plan will provide cross-border e-commerce companies with services including cross-border payment settlement, corporate and supply chain financing, local and foreign currencies, and asset appreciation.

What role do banks play in cross-border e-commerce activities?

In the entire life cycle of cross-border e-commerce activities, there are a lot of interactions between domestic and foreign consumers, cross-border e-commerce companies, payment institutions, platform companies, logistics companies and other entities. Logistics, information flow and cash flow frequently intersect, requiring banks to provide a full range of services in cross-border, financing and financial technology. According to statistics, among the financial service needs of cross-border e-commerce companies, payment settlement, trade financing and capital appreciation are the most urgent financial needs.

Therefore, the comprehensive cross-border e-commerce financial service plan launched by Bank of Beijing this time focuses on these aspects.

"In order to support the development of cross-border e-commerce, we have focused on analyzing the financial needs of cross-border e-commerce. We believe that they are mainly concentrated in the following aspects: cross-border payment settlement, financing, and asset preservation and appreciation of enterprises. Based on these three needs, our bank can provide cross-border e-commerce with a series of financial services, including cross-border payment and collection, onshore and offshore account opening, global supply chain financing, online settlement, and appreciation of local and foreign currency assets."

A relevant person in charge of the Transaction Banking Department of Beijing Bank's Urban Sub-Center Branch said that a cross-border e-commerce payment platform will be launched in the near future to provide cross-border e-commerce companies with more financial product options. On the one hand, it can reduce the settlement costs of enterprises, and on the other hand, it can shorten the collection cycle of enterprises.

In recent years, with the rapid development of Internet technology and the transformation and upgrading of international trade, cross-border e-commerce has become a new hot spot. From 2017 to 2019, the retail export volume through the customs cross-border e-commerce management platform increased from 3.35 billion yuan to 94.4 billion yuan, with an average annual growth rate of 67%. In 2020, when foreign trade as a whole suffered a severe impact, the total import and export volume of China's cross-border e-commerce reached 1.69 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 31.1%. From January to June 2021, the import and export volume of China's cross-border e-commerce reached 886.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 28.6%, of which the export volume was 603.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 44.1%, 5.5 percentage points higher than the growth rate of national goods exports in the same period.

Cross-border e-commerce market