Types Of International Settlement System And Related Knowledge

The international settlement system is also known as the international settlement system.

(1) free multilateral international settlement system

In nineteenth Century, in the heyday of the free trade of capitalism, international trade was developing very fast, and international economic and trade contacts increased day by day.

Many countries have established the gold standard currency system, and the balance of payments is basically balanced.

Gold can export freely, and the normal payment and settlement in the world are based on gold as the last means of payment.

Since the parity between currencies is based on their respective gold content and adjusted automatically by the gold pfer point, the exchange rate can remain stable.

Under such conditions, the implementation of a free multilateral international settlement system is conducive to the development of international trade.

The implementation of a free multilateral international settlement system must be based on the free exchange of foreign currencies, and the free exchange of foreign currencies must be conditional on monetary stability.

A free multilateral international settlement system must include the following contents: (1) free exchange of foreign exchange; 2. Free export of capital; third, gold free export; 4. The existence of gold and foreign exchange free trading market; and the existence of multilateral settlement system.

However, the free multilateral international settlement system was hit by the first World War.

After the outbreak of World War I, the capitalist countries had to take restrictive measures for gold and foreign exchange payment in order to raise the large amount of foreign exchange needed for war and prevent their capital flight.

Despite the gradual recovery of production and the normal international economic relations after the war, countries have partly or totally restored the gold standard monetary system. But during this period, countries still have the control system. Most countries still take some measures to indirectly intervene in foreign exchange pactions to maintain the stability of exchange rate.

From 1929 to 1933, the capitalist world broke out an unprecedentedly severe economic crisis.

The monetary credit crisis erupted in the main capitalist countries impacted the whole world market, weakened the role of the market mechanism and confused international relations.

In order to safeguard their respective economic interests, countries try hard to shift the economic crisis on the one hand, and prevent foreign economic crisis from attacking their own economies. Therefore, various forms of foreign exchange control have been restored.

During the Second World War, except for the United States and Switzerland, which had not been destroyed by war, far from war, European countries imposed strict foreign exchange control in order to pay huge amounts of war expenses.

The western financial and foreign exchange markets are stagnant, and the controlled bilateral international settlement system arises at the historic moment.

(two) controlled bilateral international settlement system

The controlled bilateral international settlement system refers to the signing of payment agreements between the two governments, the opening of liquidation accounts, the centralized cancellation and settlement of debts and debts incurred by trade and non trade contacts between the two countries.

Under such a system, the claims of a country to the State B can only be used to repay the debts of a country to the State B, and this debt can not be used to compensate a country's debts to any third country.

Bilateral liquidation is carried out by the Central Bank of the two countries.

The specific practice is that the two countries' commercial banks or foreign exchange banks should pay their own currencies to their central banks respectively, and then the Central Bank of the two countries will be credited to the settlement accounts of the other countries.

In the way of bookkeeping, we usually use the method of "borrowing first and then lending", that is, the exporter's Bank voluntarily debit the importer's Bank to open the account in the bank, and then the importer bank credits the exporter bank to open the account in the bank.

To this end, the parties set up a maintenance account to check the bill sent by the other party.

Controlled and bilateral international settlement system is the result of the collapse of the gold standard, the deepening of the capitalist economic crisis, the narrowing of the international market, the prevalence of trade protectionism and the implementation of foreign exchange control.

Under the controlled bilateral settlement system, the two countries sign a payment agreement and establish a clearing account. The debt and debt relationship formed between the two countries' economy and other contacts is concentrated by the settlement account of the designated bank, instead of the payment of gold or foreign exchange.

Under such a settlement system, the claims of one country to another cannot be used to compensate the debts of third countries, and can only be used to repay the debts of the other country.

The contents of the controlled and bilateral international settlement system are as follows:

1) a designated clearing house is usually designated by a central bank or designated by a central bank as a professional bank to settle debts and debts between the two countries.

2) establish a clearing house to sign bilateral payment agreements, and the two countries establish a clearing account for each other in their respective banks.

When an import and export business is completed, the banks of the two countries will keep accounts separately according to the agreement, and will sum up the sum of both the importers' borrowers and the exporters' credits at a time.

The domestic banks, whose respective accounts are settled by the importing and exporting parties, collect their own currencies according to the exchange rate of the clearing currencies stipulated in the local currency and the agreement.

3) stipulating the scope of liquidation shall mainly include the balance of payments items in the balance of payments and other items in the balance of payments.

All pactions which are not listed in the scope of liquidation shall be paid in cash.

4) determine the settlement currency settlement currency divided into accounting and payment currency.

The currency of account is the currency used in account settlement.

The payment currency is the currency used for the specific payment.

When the exporters and exporters pay in specific terms, they usually pay in their own currencies.

5) agree on the bilateral settlement of the fluctuation margin of the liquidation margin. First, the deadline for settlement is stipulated, and the two is to maintain the balance of payments as far as possible.

However, due to various reasons, there will always be differences in clearing accounts.

In order to prevent the difference from being too large, the fluctuation margin of liquidation margin should be stipulated roughly, which is about 5% to 10% of the total amount of liquidation.

6) the settlement of differences in liquidation accounts can be handled by the debtor countries for export of goods, or can be repaid by gold or foreign exchange. After the consent of the two parties, the balance can be pferred to the clearing account of the next settlement period.

7) to determine the exchange rate of clearing exchange rate bilateral settlement can be the official exchange rate or the market exchange rate, and the two sides can also stipulate another kind of exchange rate.

Controlled and bilateral international settlements have a certain role in promoting the development of foreign trade in developing countries, especially those with foreign exchange shortage.

Because this settlement allows the two sides of the trade not to exchange foreign currencies one by one, it can save a large amount of foreign exchange, thereby avoiding the impact of foreign exchange on the smooth progress of foreign trade.

However, under such a settlement system, the balance of its settlement can not be used to purchase products from third countries, to a certain extent, it affects the trade of third countries, and is not conducive to Global trade exchanges.

At the same time, when the trade between two countries can not be balanced, the creditor countries are actually forced to provide credit to debtor countries.

Since the Second World War, since the late 50s, western capitalist countries have gradually relaxed their foreign exchange control, and some regional economic groups have been established in succession, and the free and multilateral international settlement system has been gradually restored.

However, there are some differences between the free and multilateral international settlement system and the multilateral settlement system in the period of capitalist free competition: (1) the main developed capitalist countries generally implement multilateral settlement; (2) many developing countries still implement bilateral settlement; (3) multilateral settlement is limited to the current account in the international balance of payments; and 4. The regional trend of multilateral settlement is strengthened.

The emergence of the controlled bilateral settlement system directly reflects the intensification of the western world economic crisis and currency credit crisis.

However, the implementation of this international settlement system has two positive and negative effects.

Its positive effects are as follows: (1) alleviated the contradiction between western countries unable to carry out normal trade due to the shortage of gold and foreign exchange, to a certain extent, promoted the development of international trade; (2) prevented the adverse capital outflows or inflows, improved the balance of payments of countries; (3) saved the use of foreign exchange gold and accelerated the turnover of funds;

Its negative effects are as follows: (1) because of the exclusiveness of such a settlement system, it directly affects trade with other countries other than the State Party, thus impeding the development of international trade to a certain extent. Second, it causes the developed capitalist countries to dump surplus products to the less developed countries.

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(three) a diversified and mixed international settlement system.

After the Second World War, great changes have taken place in the world's political and economic structure.

In the early days after the war, except for the US, the main international capitalistic countries in the West were generally in short supply, unable to pay the foreign exchange needed for import materials, and at the same time unable to maintain the stability of their currencies.

By the late 1950s, the economic strength of some western countries had been enhanced enough to compete with the United States, so the control of foreign exchange has relaxed.

From 1960, the Federal Republic of Germany and Japan first announced the currency convertibility, and the British also revoked some remaining foreign exchange control regulations in 1979.

In order to develop the national economy and reduce the loss of gold international reserves, many developing countries have been carrying out strict foreign exchange control.

Therefore, the simple control of bilateral international settlement system can no longer meet the needs of economic development. The diversified mixed international settlement system has replaced a single international settlement system.

Under the diversified and mixed international settlement system, there are both multilateral and multilateral settlement in the western countries. There are also bilateral settlement systems among developing countries.

Since the international settlement system controlled is not conducive to the development of Global trade, the current multilateral settlement system is mainly a global and regional one.

The main features of diversified mixed international settlement include:

1) Limited foreign exchange and different degree of foreign exchange control coexist, and mainly based on foreign exchange convertibility.

2) the global free multilateral settlement system, the regional multilateral settlement system and the controlled bilateral settlement system coexist, and mainly based on global and regional multilateral settlement.

With the internationalization of production and capital, the rapid development of market internationalization and the vigorous rise of multinational corporations, the international trade settlement system will further develop towards the multilateral and settlement system of diversification and liberalization.