A quiet but consequential shift is underway inside the BRICS bloc: member nations are actively examining whether interconnected central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and interoperable instant payment networks could meaningfully reduce the cost and friction of cross-border transactions among themselves. The initiative, still in its discussion phase, signals a deepening ambition within the grouping to reshape the plumbing of international finance on its own terms.
The clearest public confirmation came from Reserve Bank of India Governor Sanjay Malhotra, who acknowledged that proposals are under active deliberation among BRICS members. The discussions reportedly encompass two distinct but complementary tracks: first, achieving greater technical interoperability between the rapid payment infrastructures that member states have individually developed; and second, exploring direct linkages between the sovereign digital currencies those same central banks are issuing or piloting. Together, these tracks represent a holistic redesign of how money moves across BRICS borders.
The stakes are substantial. Cross-border payment costs have long been a persistent grievance for emerging-market economies, with remittance fees and correspondent banking charges frequently consuming a disproportionate share of transferred value. For BRICS nations — whose collective membership spans Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and an expanding roster of partner states — the inefficiencies of dollar-dominated correspondent banking are both an economic irritant and a strategic vulnerability. The appeal of building a parallel, lower-cost infrastructure is therefore not purely technical; it is geopolitical.
The fast payment interoperability track draws on precedents already visible elsewhere. India's Unified Payments Interface has demonstrated that domestic instant payment rails can be extended internationally, having already established bilateral links with payment systems in Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and other jurisdictions. Brazil's PIX network and China's domestic payment infrastructure represent similarly mature real-time rails. The BRICS conversation would seek to knit these national systems together into something resembling a coherent multilateral network, though the technical and regulatory complexity of doing so across jurisdictions with differing standards and oversight regimes should not be underestimated.
The CBDC dimension adds another layer of ambition — and complexity. Several BRICS members are at advanced stages of digital currency development. China's digital yuan, known domestically as the e-CNY, has undergone extensive domestic pilots. India's digital rupee is in a phased rollout. Brazil's Drex platform is progressing through its own testing phases. Russia has similarly advanced its digital ruble project, particularly as Western financial sanctions have intensified the country's motivation to build settlement infrastructure outside the traditional SWIFT-anchored system. Linking these sovereign digital instruments at the BRICS level would require not only technical bridges but also shared legal frameworks governing settlement finality, default handling, and currency conversion.
The Bank for International Settlements has itself acknowledged the theoretical appeal of multi-CBDC arrangements — often referred to as mCBDC bridges — through projects such as mBridge, which has involved central banks from China, Hong Kong, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates. The BRICS initiative, if it progresses, would represent a significantly larger and more politically charged version of that architecture, involving economies that collectively account for a growing share of global gross domestic product and trade flows.
Yet the path from discussion to implementation is rarely linear in multilateral finance. Achieving genuine interoperability requires harmonising anti-money laundering and know-your-customer standards across member states — a task complicated by the wide divergence in domestic regulatory cultures across the BRICS grouping. Geopolitical tensions within the bloc itself, and between individual members and Western financial institutions, add further layers of negotiating friction. Governor Malhotra's careful framing of the proposals as still "under discussion" is a reminder that ambition and execution in this domain rarely travel at the same speed.
What this means for the broader financial system is worth watching closely. If BRICS nations succeed in building even a partial CBDC and fast payment bridge, the implications for correspondent banking revenues, for dollar dominance in intra-BRICS trade settlement, and for the global architecture of cross-border payments could be significant over the medium term. The initiative may not displace the existing system imminently, but it represents a credible and well-resourced effort to build an alternative lane — one that a growing number of economies are increasingly motivated to use. The world's major financial institutions would be wise to treat this as signal, not noise.
Written by the editorial team — independent journalism powered by Codego Press.
