In the past ten years, Asian countries have risen rapidly in terms of economy and trade. According to statistics from McKinsey, Asia’s share of global trade in goods has risen from 25% in 2000-2002 to 33% in 2015-2017; its share in global capital flows has also risen from 13% a decade ago to 23%; The proportion of global cross-border data flow has risen from 10% to 16%. The increase in the total economic volume and the expansion of the total trade volume have greatly stimulated the demand for cross-border payments in Asian countries, and provided ample space for the vigorous development of the Asian cross-border payment market.
(1) Asian traditional cross-border payment systems and services.
In this context, Asian countries have actively used new technologies to make many fruitful attempts to create some representative cross-border payment systems and services, including: the People’s Bank of China Independently organized RMB cross-border payment system (CIPS), Singapore Fast and Secure Transfer System (FAST), the Rapid Response Code System (SGQR) jointly issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Communication Media Development Authority (IMDA), India The unified payment interface (UPI) developed by payment companies and supervised by the Central Bank of India, the blockchain solution of Ayutthaya Bank in Thailand, etc. (Table 4).
Compared with the global traditional cross-border payment systems and services, Asian countries or regions initiate cross-border payment services with less processing volume and a relatively low market share, but they actively use new technologies such as blockchain. As of June 2019, China's cross-border renminbi payment and clearing system (CIPS) has a cumulative business processing volume of 60 trillion yuan, which is still a long way from the world's representative cross-border payment system. These cross-border payment systems can only play a supplementary role to the original global cross-border payment system, not a substitute.
(2) Third-party cross-border payment platforms
in Asia In addition to the above-mentioned cross-border payment systems and services, in recent years, third-party payment platforms in Asian countries have achieved breakthrough growth through fast and convenient payment services, and have also launched cross-border payment services. The exploration of payment mainly includes: Alipay in China, Nium in Singapore, Paytm in India and MOLPay in Malaysia (Table 5).
(3) Cross-border payment cooperation in
Asia While Asian countries have established cross-border payment platforms one after another, they have also successively carried out a series of practical cooperation to further improve the interoperability of payment platforms. These cooperations not only help simplify the payment process, but also play a key role in promoting innovation in the cross-border payment field in various countries.
Form a regional cross-border payment alliance (Asian Consortium). In order to further promote cross-border payment cooperation, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and other places formed a cross-border payment alliance in December 2019. Alliance participants include iPASS, a contactless smart card operator in Taiwan, NHN Payco in South Korea, and multiple subsidiaries of LINE Corp in Japan. The creation of this alliance will promote cashless cross-border payments in various market segments, including catering, shopping, transportation and entertainment. Establish a path to cross borders and share the borderless payment experience.
Signed a number of bilateral memorandums of understanding on cross-border payment cooperation. In order to promote the digital innovation of the central banks of Thailand and Indonesia in the field of payment and financial services. The Bank of Thailand and Bank Indonesia signed the "Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in the Field of Payment Systems and Financial Innovation" in April 2019 to further strengthen the in-depth cooperation between the two countries in the field of cross-border payment and payment system supervision. In June 2018, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) of the Government of India signed a memorandum of understanding, and the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) and the electronic transfer network (NETS), a domestic payment system operator in Singapore, started payment linkage work. Strengthen the cross-border payment link between Singapore’s PayNow and India’s Instant Payment Service (IMPS). In December 2019, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Monetary Authority of the Bank of Thailand launched a two-layer digital token supported by blockchain to simplify cross-border transfers and payments between banks and companies, and speed up currency settlement between the two economies speed.