Cross-Border Payment and Clearing System and Cross-Border Payment Method Based on Digital Currency

Abstract

A cross-border payment and clearing system and a cross-border payment and clearing method that are based on the Internet and that do not depend on messages. The system and the method get rid of an existing clearing system based on messages, and high speed and low cost cross-border payment and clearing are implemented by means of communication without messages that is based on the Internet and counterparty transaction of members, and further, a trilateral clearing mode is implemented that ordinary corporations, natural persons, and the like directly submit a cross-border payment request to the clearing system, and the clearing system performs real-time payment and clearing according to a member of a payment corporate that is appointed by the clearing system or that is preferred, so that a large number of intermediate links and message transmission are omitted, and efficiency is greatly improved. The system supports both legal currency clearing and digital currency clearing, and fully uses features of digital currency and locks, releases, and pays out security deposit, to further reduce a risk, and has important uses in the fields of currency clearing, international trade, cross-border electronic commerce, and the like.

Claims

1-14. (canceled)

15. A payment and clearing system, characterizing in that, said system comprises: a member system comprising a plurality of members, wherein at least one said member of said member system is a transaction processing company which is one of a payment company and a receiving company; a command transmission and communication system, which includes wireless internet-based command transmission and communication system, for accomplishing communications between two or more of the group consisting of member, clearing system and user, and/or communications between members and between users; and a business system, wherein one said member of said member system is arranged to carry out counterparty transactions with another member through said business system for conducting a payment or a clearing.

16. The payment and clearing system, as recited in claim 15, wherein said payment and clearing system is configured to create and store at least one of transaction records and accounts.

17. The payment and clearing system, as recited in claim 16, further comprising a transaction counterparty matching system which selects at least one transaction counterparty company for said payment or said clearing, wherein said selected transaction counterparty company is an optimal payment company, an optimal receiving company or an optimal payment company with an optimal receiving company.

18. The payment and clearing system, as recited in claim 17, further comprising an business submission and processing system, wherein an user, which is a member or a non-member and is a legal entity, a natural person or an organization, is arranged to, through said business submission and processing system, submit a payment or clearing transaction request to said clearing system, said clearing system is arranged to process said transaction through at least one of the payment company and the receiving company as designated by the user, or select at least one counterparty to process said payment and clearing transaction, said counterparty company comprise a payment company on said payer said or a receiving company on said payee side.

19. The payment and clearing system, as recited in claim 18, further comprising a member bank, a security deposit system, or a member bank with a security deposit system, which allows a user to open account and put security deposit to the account, said security deposit including at least one of an official currency and a digital currency.

20. The payment and clearing system, as recited in claim 19, further comprising a security deposits management system configured according to the payment and clearing situation to perform at least one of locking, releasing, reimbursing and paying to the corresponding security deposit.

21. The payment and clearing system, as recited in claim 20, further comprising a financing system, for providing financing services to said members.

22. The payment and clearing system, as recited in claim 20, further comprising a currency exchange module configured to exchange a predetermined currency to other another official currency, a digital currency, precious metals or other valuables, or an appropriate bill of lading in barter transaction.

23. A payment and clearing method, comprising the steps of: (a.1) conducting a payment or clearing transaction by a client through a business submission system and payment; (a.2) said client initiating said transaction through a clearing system, and specifying a member of said clearing system as a transaction counterparty by himself, or selecting and matching a member of said clearing system as a transaction counterparty by a transaction counterparty matching system for said transaction; (a.3) paying a corresponding digital currency or legal currency by themself or by a business system or a member bank between the two counterparties from said payment company to said receiving company; (a.4) transferring the corresponding official currency to said bank account designated by said client above by said receiving company.

24. The method, as recited in claim 23, said step (a.1) is substituted by the step of: (ac.1) requesting a member of a clearing system to conduct a payment or clearing transaction and payment by a client through a business submission system; wherein said step of (a.2) is substituted by the step of: (ac.2) said member initiate said transaction through said clearing system, and specifying another member of said clearing system as a transaction counterparty, or selecting another member of said clearing system as a transaction counterparty by a transaction counterparty matching system for said transaction.

25. The method, as recited in claim 23, wherein said step (a.3) further comprises the step of: once said counterparty transaction starting, locking said security deposits of said payment company until said order company received corresponding digital currency or legal currency from said payment company.

26. The method, as recited in claim 23, wherein said step (a.3) further comprises the step of locking said security deposits of said order company until said bank account designated by said client earlier received corresponding digital currency or legal currency from said order company or a predetermined period of time out, through said member bank or security deposits system.

27. The method, as recited in claim 23, further comprises the step of: reimbursing a corresponding amount from the security deposit of a transaction counterparty to the other transaction counterparty when the other counterparty fails to pay the corresponding amount of currency as requested in a said counterparty transaction.

28. The method, as recited in claim 23, wherein the step (a.4) is between the step (a.2) and the step (a.3).

29. A payment and clearing system client terminal, comprising a business submission module and a payment module, wherein a user is adapted to submit a payment or clearing transaction request to a payment or clearing system and payment, said user includes at least one of a legal person, a natural person and/or other organizations.

30. The payment and clearing system client terminal, as recited in claim 29, being configured to create and store transaction records for all or a part of the transactions or payments.

31. The payment and clearing system client terminal, as recited in claim 30, further comprising an appointment module, said appointment module being arranged to appoint a member of said payment and clearing system to carry out said payment of clearing transaction, said appointment includes appointing a member of said payment and clearing system to conduct the said payment or clearing transaction, or to work as the said payment company or said receiving company for carrying out said payment and clearing transactions.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

[0052] Suppose a client A1 who are in country A would like to send payment through a payment processing company also located in country A to a bank account in a bank B3 located in country B, and further suppose that one unit of a predetermined digital currency has a value equal to $100 U.S. dollars. A typical cross-border payment processing procedures may comprise the following steps:

[0053] 1. Client A1 submits an order. Client A1 may directly conduct a corresponding cross-border payment transaction through a clearing system, or designate a company to conduct the corresponding cross-border payment;

[0054] 2. When client A1 submits the order, if he chooses to conduct the transaction directly, the cross-border payment and clearing system will try to match and find a member company B2 located in country B as a transaction counterparty company for the transaction. The clearing system may find a suitable company B2 based on the information contained in the order, such as payee country, payee bank, payee account, payment currency, and payment amount etc. The clearing system may also match a suitable company B2 based on some financial information thereof such as the security status, total settlement amount, and the availability of a bank account in bank B3. Similarly, the clearing system may also select a transaction processing company A2 located in country A to carry out the counterparty transaction with company B2 to complete the cross-border payment transaction. The selection criteria will be substantially similar to that of choosing the transaction processing company B2. If client A1 chooses to use a designated transaction processing company to complete the corresponding cross-border payment, the clearing system will, depending on the availability of security deposits, inform if the corresponding cross-border transaction may be initiated. If the security deposits is not enough to pay the counterparty company, the clearing system may initial a financing service and transfer of funds or digital currency from an internal bank or use other designated methods to fund the security deposit account so as to ensure that there will be sufficient security deposit to initiate the cross-border transaction. Alternatively, the clearing system may select and match other transaction processing companies to carry on another counterparty transaction to complete the corresponding cross-border transaction. In other words, the two companies A2 and B2 as described below may be a payment processing company which is designated by client, or a transaction processing company which is selected and matched by the clearing system;

[0055] 3. Client A1 makes a money transfer of US$5000 payment and the corresponding processing fee to a designated bank account of company A2;

[0056] 4. When client A1 has made the money transfer, three corresponding transaction records may be created. These transaction records are kept and maintained in the account of the company A2 and B2, and the clearing system respectively, wherein each of the transaction records includes the corresponding bank account information, the processing fees for each company/transaction counterparty, and the amount of digital currency which may be needed to be traded;

[0057] 5. The clearing system may, according to the above-mentioned transaction records, authorize or lock in the security deposits of the transaction processing company A2 and B2: 50 units of a predetermined digital currency or US$5000 and etc.;

[0058] 6. Company A2 deducts the processing fee from the payment paid by client A1, and exchanges the remaining balance to the predetermined digital currency through a local digital currency exchange platform, the local digital currency exchange platform may be the a digital currency exchange platform located in the country or state of origin of the company A2. Alternatively, the local digital currency exchange platform may be an inter transaction processing company trading platform in the clearing system. The total amount may slightly little more than 50 units of digital currency. Excess dollar amount may be kept by receiving company B2 as processing fee. The processing fee may also be kept in the form of digital currency by exchanging all the payment from client A1. When there is enough digital currency, no exchange is necessary;

[0059] 7. Company A2 makes payment of the above-mentioned digital currency (a little bit more than 50 units of digital currency) to a digital wallet of company B2;

[0060] 8. When company B2 has received the digital currency from company A2, company B2 may initiate the release of the security deposit belonging to company A2 and being locked through the clearing system;

[0061] 9. At the same time, the company B2 may exchange all of the digital currency back to dollar, which may be a little bit more than $5000. The excess amount is the processing fee of company B2 (obviously, company B2 may exchange only 50 units of digital currency to dollar, wherein the excess amount of digital currency may be kept in the form of digital currency and stored in a digital wallet as the processing fee of company B2). It is obvious that when there is not enough digital currency, keeping some digital currency is necessary.

[0062] 10. Company B2 transfers $5000 to the bank account in bank B3 designated by client A1 in the order;

[0063] 11. Company B2 transmits a transfer receipt back to company A2. Company A2 notifies the clearing system that the cross-border transaction has been completed, and releases the security deposits of the company B2;

[0064] 12. If, within a predetermined period of time, company B2 does not receive the digital currency paid by the company A2, the clearing system is configured to reimburse the company B2 corresponding amount due from the security deposits paid by the company A2 in which the amount due may be equal to $5000 or 50 units of the predetermined digital currency to a bank account designated by the company B2; and

[0065] 13. If, within a predetermined period of time, the company A2 does not receive a confirmation receipt issued by the company B2 regarding the transfer of $5000 into the bank account set up in bank B3 and designated by client A1, the clearing system is configured to reimburse the company A2 the corresponding amount due from the security deposits paid by the company B2 in which the amount due may be equal to $5000 or 50 units of the predetermined digital currency to a bank account designated by the company A2.

[0066] The key point is: when client A1 has ordered a cross-border transaction, three identical transaction receipts will be generated and sent to the company A2, the company B2, and the clearing system respectively. It is worth mentioning that each transaction counterparty of the cross-border transaction should have a certain amount of legal tender or digital currency apart from the required security deposits. As a result, each of the transaction counterparty in a cross-border transaction does not need to wait for the payment by the other side to arrive. Rather, each transaction counterparty may proceed to make transfer of legal tender or digital currency when they have received the transaction record information from the system. As such, the efficiency and speed of cross-border transaction may be greatly enhanced. The risks involved in transaction counterparty can be adequately compensated and secured by the relevant security deposits by the clearing system.

[0067] In other words, steps 6, 7, 9 and 10 described above may be completed simultaneously. That is, when client A1 has completed submitting a cross-border transaction order and paid, the company B2 may immediately make a transfer of $5000 to the bank account in bank B3 designated by client A1, sell 50 units of the predetermined digital currency and wait for the same amount of digital currency paid by the company A2 to be transferred thereto. If, within a predetermined period of time, the company B2 does not receive the required digital currency from the company A2, the clearing system may be configured to reimburse the company B2 the amount due from the security deposits paid by the company A2. As such, cross-border transaction may be accomplished in a very rapid and efficient manner. Whenever necessary, the company A2 may also advance payment to the company B2 before client A1 actually pays the company A2.

[0068] The forgoing description is the preferred embodiment of the cross-border payment and clearing system and cross-border payment method by submitting an order directly to the clearing system. Obviously, a user may also submit the request through a transaction processing company as mentioned above. The transaction processing company may then order a cross-border transaction on behalf of the user. As such, steps 1, 2 and 3 as described above may be amended to state that after a client has paid the corresponding amount for the cross-border transaction, the transaction processing company may initiate a cross-border transaction through the clearing system. The transaction processing company may assign a transaction counterparty company or let the clearing system to select and match an optimal transaction counterparty company. After that, the subsequent steps of the cross-border transaction and clearing may then be carried out.

[0069] With the help of the clearing system, cross-border payments and transactions may be completed in seconds. In this very short period of time, variations in the exchange rate of the digital currency may be neglected. As such, the risks for all the participating parties of the cross-border transactions may be substantially minimized. Moreover, since the exchange and transfer of digital currency can be accomplished very rapidly, the security deposits withheld or locked for each transaction counterparty may also be released or unlocked in a very short period of time.

[0070] Obviously, the payment in the counterparty transaction can be complete by the payment and clearing system, and this should resemble the reimbursement process as mentioned above. That is, when client A1 has submitted a payment or clearing order, the company B2 may make a money transfer to the designated bank account in bank B3. However, the company A2 does not transfer the corresponding amount of money or digital currency to the company B2. Rather, the clearing system may deduct the security deposits paid by the company A2 and utilize that amount in terms of dollar amount (or digital currency) to make the corresponding payment (in dollar amount or digital currency) to the bank account or electronic wallet held of the company B2. An exemplary account is the security deposit account of the company B2 in the clearing system. As such, cross-border transaction can also be accomplished.

[0071] The present invention, while illustrated and described in terms of a preferred embodiment and several alternatives, is not limited to the particular description contained in this specification. Additional alternative or equivalent components could be used to practice the present invention.