Cross-border payment generally refers to the international debts and credits between two or more countries or regions due to international trade, international investment and other aspects, and the cross-border and cross-regional transfer of funds achieved with the help of certain settlement tools and payment systems. Unlike domestic payments, the currency paid by the payee in cross-border payments may not be consistent with the currency required by the payee, or may involve foreign currency exchange and foreign exchange control policy issues.
Cross-border e-commerce payments mainly solve the “capital flow” problem in cross-border business. The definition of cross-border foreign exchange payment business of payment institutions given by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange is: payment institutions provide centralized collection and payment of foreign exchange funds and related foreign exchange settlement and sale services involved in cross-border Internet payments for both parties of e-commerce (trade in goods or trade in services) transactions through banks. It can be seen that cross-border e-commerce payment has to solve four problems: the first is the “collection” of foreign exchange funds, that is, how cross-border e-commerce enterprises or sellers collect payments; the second is the “payment” of foreign exchange funds, that is, how cross-border buyers pay (for example, how Chinese overseas buyers pay foreign sellers for goods); the third is the “settlement” of foreign exchange, that is, converting foreign exchange into domestic currency, which is generally done by cross-border e-commerce enterprises or sellers after receiving payment; the fourth is the “sale of foreign exchange” in foreign exchange business, which mainly refers to financial institutions selling foreign exchange to buyers in cross-border e-commerce to meet the buyers’ needs for payment.