What To Know:
- RBI proposes BRICS digital currency link to support faster cross-border trade and tourism payments.
- CBDCs may feature at the 2026 BRICS summit, which India will host later this year.
- The digital currency move aligns with India’s payments strategy, including expansion of the e-rupee and cross-border UPI links.
India has proposed linking the official digital currencies of BRICS nations for easy cross-border trade and tourism payments. The recommendation, put forward by the Reserve Bank of India, aims to improve settlement systems that remain mostly dependent on traditional correspondent banking networks.
India: BRICS Digital Currency For Cross-Border Payments
Sources familiar with the discussions said the RBI has advised the Indian government to include central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, on the formal agenda of the 2026 BRICS summit. The individuals spoke on condition of anonymity, and cited the sensitivity of internal policy deliberations.
India is due to host the summit later this year. The BRICS grouping comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. In the past 10 years, the group has expanded its membership to include countries like the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Indonesia, as part of a broader effort by the group to boost economic cooperation among emerging markets.
The suggestion comes after a declaration issued at the 2025 BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, where member states called for greater interoperability between national payment systems. That statement called for low transaction costs, short settlement times, and easier access to international payments for trade and travel. The RBI’s proposal was not previously reported, according to Reuters.
Officials from the RBI, India’s finance ministry, and the central banks of China, Brazil, and Russia did not respond to requests for comment. South Africa’s central bank declined to provide a statement.
The move carries geopolitical sensitivity. The US has repeatedly warned against initiatives that seek to bypass the dollar in global trade. President Donald Trump has described BRICS as “anti-American” and has previously threatened tariffs against member countries pursuing alternative payment frameworks.
Indian officials have maintained that discussions around CBDC interoperability are focused on efficiency and resilience rather than currency realignment. The RBI has stated publicly that its work on digital currency cooperation does not target de-dollarisation.
India has been among the most active BRICS members in experimenting with retail digital currency infrastructure. The digital rupee, known as the e-rupee, was launched in December 2022 and has attracted approximately 7 million retail users, according to official data cited by Reuters.
The central bank has gradually expanded the system’s capabilities. Offline transactions have been enabled to support payments in low-connectivity regions. Programmability features have been introduced for targeted government subsidy transfers. Companies that are involved in fintech have also been permitted to sell e-rupee wallets to help broaden access beyond traditional banking channels.
China, for its part, continues to experiment with cross-border uses of the digital yuan and said it will expand its international usage. Brazil and Russia are running pilot programs; South Africa is in an experimental phase. Despite these efforts, none of the five main BRICS members has been able to launch a complete national retail CBDC. Experts who are well known at this point say, the internationalization of digital currencies would necessitate complicated arrangements. The most relevant conversations would most probably involve establishing common technical standards, shared messaging systems, governance structures, and rules for managing settlement imbalances between trading partners.
Interoperability would also require harmonisation around the processes of compliance, the data protection norms as well as real-time mechanisms to use foreign exchange. Without this focus, cross-border CBDC settlements might run into operational friction. Even so, advocates say a multilateral digital currency arrangement might lessen dependence on sluggish and expensive correspondent banking channels, especially for smaller firms and travelers. This proposal fits in with India’s global strategy to internationalise its payment infrastructure. India has already linked its Unified Payments Interface to systems in Singapore, the UAE and other jurisdictions, delivering faster retail remittances.
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