The participants of third-party cross-border payment services are divided into three categories: the first is the buyers and sellers of cross-border transactions; the second is payment and settlement institutions, including third-party payment institutions, reserve deposit banks, and domestic and foreign financial institutions that have cooperative relations with buyers and sellers; the third is regulatory agencies of various countries, including central banks, foreign exchange, and financial regulatory agencies.
The cross-border payments provided by third-party payment institutions for cross-border e-commerce mainly include two types of services: “collection and settlement of foreign exchange” and “purchase and payment of foreign exchange”. Collection and settlement of foreign exchange refers to the third-party payment institutions helping domestic sellers to collect foreign exchange and convert it into local currency, mainly for the export cross-border e-commerce platform business. Purchase and payment of foreign exchange refers to the purchase and cross-border payment of foreign exchange provided by third-party payment institutions to domestic buyers when they purchase goods through cross-border e-commerce platforms.
The specific process of “collection and settlement of foreign exchange”. After overseas buyers place an order through a cross-border e-commerce platform, the order information will be sent to domestic sellers and overseas third-party payment institutions at the same time. Buyers pay the goods to overseas third-party payment institutions through payment companies, credit card organizations, banks, wire transfer companies, etc. Overseas third-party payment institutions pay the goods to domestic buyers through third-party payment institutions that cooperate with China in the mode of foreign exchange collection and settlement, and then deliver the goods to the buyers through cross-border logistics, thus completing cross-border e-commerce transactions.
When domestic buyers purchase products or services from overseas merchants through third-party payment institutions, the entire “purchase and payment of foreign exchange” process is that domestic buyers log in to the third-party payment platform website, browse the goods or services provided by overseas sellers who have a cooperative relationship with the third-party payment platform, place an order after determining the purchase object, enter the verification information and select the payment method. After obtaining the buyer’s authentication information, the third-party payment institution sends the payment information to the reserve fund depository bank and receives the bank’s purchase and remittance information. After receiving the purchase and remittance information from the third-party payment institution, the overseas seller sends products and provides related services to the domestic buyer. After the domestic buyer confirms the receipt of the goods, the third-party payment institution sends the external payment information to the custodian bank, and the custodian bank transfers the corresponding foreign exchange funds to the overseas entrusted bank of the overseas seller, and the entire transaction is completed immediately.