In 2001, China officially joined the WTO. In the following two decades, China's exports have swept the world, and it has rapidly grown into a major trading country.
As an indispensable part of cross-border trade, whether it is commodity trading, service provision, fund distribution or international lending, etc., foreign exchange receipts and payments need to be handled through banks, which is international settlement. The IT system that supports its operation and delivery is the international settlement system.
"It was also around 2000 that CLP Financial set its sights on the exploration and construction of the international settlement system. Unexpectedly, it took more than 20 years to do so," said Liu Feng, general manager of the trade finance department of CLP Financial. Many of my colleagues have joined the team since graduating from university and have been focusing on the international settlement business."
For more than 20 years, CLP Financial has gradually matured its understanding of the international settlement system, and has accumulated rich experience and professionalism along with the continuous growth of China's transnational trade and the international settlement business for bank users.
Not long ago, in the report "China's Banking Industry IT Solution Market Share, 2022: Competition Deepening and Resilient Growth" released by IDC, the world's authoritative IT market research and consulting organization, in the sub-market of payment and settlement solutions, CLP Jinxin ranked first With a market share of 12.96%, it ranks first. This is the 10th consecutive year that CLP Financial has led the market. China Electronics Financial Trust maintains a continuous lead, and its main advantage is reflected in the international settlement business...
01 A watershed in the differentiated services of commercial banks for international settlements
International settlement, developed with the emergence of international trade, is the cornerstone of international trade. With an international settlement system, cross-border trade can be carried out smoothly.
The international settlement system is an important part of the payment and settlement system. With the gradual increase in financial needs of individuals and enterprises, especially the increasingly fierce competition in retail business, the service efficiency and quality of payment and settlement are the focus of competition among banking institutions, and this is even more prominent in international settlement.
Simply put, payment clearing systems are usually divided into two components, domestic and international. Among them, the domestic part is based on the payment and clearing of the national currency, providing safe and efficient payment business processing for the domestic financial market; the international settlement system provides payment and clearing support for cross-border trade.
The two complement each other, but the tests for banks are completely different.
Because the payment and clearing system of the national currency is relatively standardized, it only needs to be connected to the clearing platform of the central bank to handle the transfer of payment funds and message processing, while the international settlement will be affected by the international trade situation and the complexity of the payment and clearing systems of various countries and regions. Uncertainty effects such as credit and credit are more complicated.
Today, all banks operate with full licenses, which means that all banks can do cross-border payment business, and to make a differentiated competitive advantage, they need to play their distinctive cards through international settlement.
Liu Feng said, "Factors such as payment efficiency, intermediate charging costs, and processing time cycles will all affect the experience of the international settlement system. To achieve these differences, automation and intelligence capabilities are essential."
As users have higher and higher requirements on the timeliness of payment, automation can realize the fastest selection of correspondent banks and the shortest path. At the same time, it can also reduce manual intervention, reduce personnel investment, and reduce costs. This is the value of automation; There are many channels for environmental payment. How to choose the most efficient channel requires the use of AI technology to process it systematically, which is another consideration of intelligence.
Liu Feng also gave an example. For example, banks need to help users review the terms agreed in contracts and letters of credit. In the past, these tasks required manual review, which would take a lot of energy. Smart document review uses intelligent technology to automate document review, which can help banks improve efficiency and reduce labor costs.
02 Not simple international settlement is changing all the time
In fact, the complexity of the international settlement system does not only come from the system itself, but more factors affect the evolution of the system.
First, there are changes in the market. In recent years, China's exports have undergone some obvious changes. In the past, they were mainly oriented to mature markets in Europe and the United States. Today, exports to Southeast Asia, Africa, and countries along the “Belt and Road” are gradually increasing. Moreover, the business model of enterprises has changed from the traditional import and export companies to the cross-border e-commerce platform.
The change brought about by this change to the international settlement system is that it has shifted from the previous characteristics of "few transactions and large transaction amount" to the new normal of "many transactions and small amount".
Second, changes in security risks. The payment business in European and American countries is very stable and mature. Everyone's credit standards are almost the same, and they all follow the UCP of the International Chamber of Commerce. However, there are great differences in credit systems and business standardization in third world countries, and banks have an urgent need for risk prevention.
This also brings a lot of new thinking to CLP Jinxin.
"It must be a general trend for banks to reduce costs and invest in personnel. On the one hand, the business of "large number of transactions and small amounts" further requires the international settlement system to move towards automated processing faster; "Integrated payment risk prevention system during and after the event." Liu Feng said.
The requirements for risk management and control have also brought about a bigger change, that is, the international settlement system even pays attention to the route of freight. Once there is a certain risk in the port or country that will pass through the route, it will give an early warning.
Liu Feng explained, "Because behind all payment and settlement, it represents a business. Banks must understand the background of the business, so the international settlement system must also make corresponding matches."
03 The invisible advantages behind CLP Jinxin's leading position
CLP Financial can maintain its leading position in the international settlement market, in addition to its fifth-generation international settlement products adopting a central-platform architecture, distributed micro-service technology, and a front-end and back-end separation model, fully supporting technologies such as high reliability, high concurrency, and elastic computing Outside of requirements. In fact, there are many "invisible" advantages.
Liu Feng summed it up in six words: "professional, focused, and attentive."
First, professionalism. For more than 20 years, the international settlement team of China Electronics Financial Trust has been professionally cultivating business for a long time, constantly accumulating and researching.
Second, focus. CLP Financial Trust has been focusing on research in the field of international settlement for a long time. "We will work with our peers to explore the development trend of each industry, study the changes of each market, and focus on developing business around international settlement." Liu Feng said.
Third, concentrate. This refers to services. The customer churn rate of CLP Financial in the field of international settlement is very low. According to the statistics of CLP Financial, the customer retention rate is as high as 95%.
For example, a joint-stock bank has cooperated with CLP Financial since 2000. During this period, the system has undergone several iterations, and it has always chosen the services of CLP Financial for 23 years. Bank customers trust CLP Financial so much, which in itself is the recognition of its "professional, dedicated, dedicated" service quality, and from the perspective of CLP Financial, it has also made great efforts.
Liu Feng also said, "We have always urged ourselves to take the initiative to upgrade products and invest in market trend research in advance, hoping to continuously improve the quality of CLP Financial's services by bringing more added value to customers."
Indeed, many banks started their international settlement business in 2000. CEC Financial has become a bridge between customers' technology and business based on the idea of "knowing business better than technical personnel, and understanding technology better than business personnel". . It has formed a solid "iron triangle" relationship and has become the "best choice" for the banking industry's international settlement system.
Another important advantage is the financial-grade digital base "Yuanqi" launched by China Electronics Financial Trust in 2022. This is based on China's electronic full-stack independent computing industry chain and adopts a new generation of technical architecture to create for finance and key industries. New digital infrastructure.
Liu Feng said, "'Yuanqi' provides a complete credible and basic operating support environment, including a complete set of development tool chains. The international settlement system relies on its development tool chains. The operation platform also includes a data asset platform, which can help the international settlement business to gradually transform from a transaction type to a digital one. With the support of 'Yuanqi', the transformation efficiency will be higher."
It is understood that "Yuanqi" is oriented to key industry scenarios such as finance. According to the system engineering methodology, it conducts verification, adaptation, customization and tuning of full-stack technology products, realizes the integrated design of software and hardware and vertical penetration, and creates a reliable alternative to traditional products. The technical base of the architecture meets the requirements of industry applications for high security, high reliability, high performance, ultimate experience, high-speed construction and green sustainability.
Moreover, the digital base of "Yuanqi" has been verified by a large number of industry deposits and key scenarios, which also enables CLP Financial's international settlement system-related products to achieve data-driven business operations and refined management. make it perform better in the market.
If you want to wear a crown, you must bear its weight. As the "champion" in the field of international settlement systems in the past ten years, CLP Financial's winning code is to maintain awe of the industry, cautiously predict the market environment, and be attentive and attentive to customer needs. Be yourself, fearless of wind and rain.