The initiative remains at discussion stage, but interoperability between national payment systems could become an important piece of the emerging architecture of a more fragmented global financial system
Members of the BRICS group are discussing ways to link their domestic fast-payment systems and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), according to Reserve Bank of India Governor Sanjay Malhotra. The discussions, still at an early stage, reflect a broader effort among emerging economies to make cross-border payments cheaper and more efficient while increasing the use of national currencies in international trade. India is hosting the 2026 BRICS summit.
“Cross-border payments is an area of interest for all of us, including the BRICS, because we feel there is a lot of scope for reducing cost,” Malhotra said in Mumbai. He added that several options were being considered, including CBDCs and linkages between fast-payment systems, but stressed that the proposals remained at the discussion stage.
The discussions build on an agenda India has been pursuing for some time. Reuters reported earlier this year that the RBI had recommended that connecting CBDCs should be placed on the agenda of the 2026 BRICS summit. India has also been promoting the internationalisation of the rupee and greater use of local currencies for cross-border trade and payments.
The significance lies less in the prospect of a new BRICS currency than in the possibility of connecting existing national payment infrastructures. Rather than requiring businesses in two countries to rely entirely on conventional correspondent banking arrangements, interoperable fast-payment systems could allow transactions to move more directly between participating financial institutions. CBDC interoperability could eventually extend that architecture into central-bank-issued digital money.
The technical and regulatory difficulties, however, should not be underestimated. Interoperability requires countries to agree not only on technology but also on settlement arrangements, foreign-exchange conversion, cybersecurity, data governance, consumer protection and rules for combating money laundering and illicit finance. Earlier analysis of cross-border digital-payment integration has similarly highlighted the importance of interoperability, regulation, data protection and digital infrastructure.
BRICS and the Geography of Financial Power
For BRICS, the initiative has a distinctly geopolitical dimension. A cheaper and more interoperable cross-border payment system could reduce some of the friction associated with international trade among member economies and increase the practical use of their domestic currencies. That does not automatically amount to a challenge to the dollar’s dominance, but it could gradually create additional payment rails alongside the existing global financial architecture.
This distinction is important. The debate about BRICS has sometimes been reduced to whether the bloc will create a common currency to replace the dollar. The more consequential development may instead be considerably less dramatic: the construction of alternative payment infrastructure.
Payment systems are economic infrastructure. Whoever controls the rails through which money moves possesses a degree of influence over the cost, speed, visibility and resilience of international commerce. If BRICS members can make their domestic payment systems interoperable, they could make trade between their economies less dependent on a single set of external financial intermediaries.
India’s own experience gives the discussion particular weight. Its Unified Payments Interface has demonstrated how a national real-time payment architecture can become deeply embedded in everyday commerce. The next challenge is taking that infrastructure across borders without losing the security, regulatory oversight and reliability that make domestic systems useful.
For African economies, the development is worth watching closely. The continent is already pursuing its own cross-border payment architecture through initiatives such as the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, while the African Continental Free Trade Area requires payment arrangements capable of supporting greater intra-African commerce. A world in which multiple regional payment systems become interoperable could create opportunities for African economies to participate in a more diversified global digital-finance ecosystem.
But interoperability is not the same as independence. African countries would still need reliable electricity, telecommunications networks, cybersecurity capabilities, digital identity systems, financial regulation and sufficient liquidity in participating currencies. Digital payment sovereignty cannot be achieved merely by installing software.
AI Enters the Same Regulatory Conversation
Malhotra’s remarks also connected the payments discussion to another defining question of the digital economy: how financial institutions should govern artificial intelligence.
The RBI governor said the central bank regards AI as a capability to be harnessed rather than simply a risk to be contained. “Indian banks cannot afford to sit on the sidelines and watch,” he said, while urging banks to inventory the AI models they use and establish board-approved AI governance policies.
That is a significant formulation because it moves AI governance away from the simplistic choice between innovation and regulation. Malhotra’s argument is that banks need both. “Innovation and safety are not opposing goals,” he said. “They are in fact complementary requirements of a durable financial system.”
For financial institutions, an inventory of AI models is more than an administrative exercise. It is the beginning of understanding where algorithms are being used, what decisions they influence, what data they consume and who remains accountable when they fail. In banking, that could encompass fraud detection, credit assessment, customer service, cybersecurity, compliance and risk management.
The combination of the two announcements is revealing. The future of finance is increasingly being shaped by two forms of infrastructure at once: digital payment infrastructure and AI decision infrastructure. The first determines how money moves; the second increasingly influences how financial institutions decide what to do with it.
BrandiQ Analysis
The BRICS discussion illustrates a broader transformation in the political economy of technology. Digital infrastructure is no longer merely a matter of convenience or financial efficiency. It is becoming an instrument of economic sovereignty.
A country that can move money quickly, cheaply and securely across borders has greater control over the mechanics of its trade. A group of countries that can connect their payment systems gains an additional layer of resilience against disruptions in established financial channels. The strategic question is therefore not whether BRICS can “replace” the dollar, but whether it can create enough alternative infrastructure to reduce the costs and vulnerabilities associated with dependence on existing systems.
Yet there is a paradox. The more interconnected these systems become, the more important governance becomes. A cross-border digital payment network creates a cross-border regulatory problem. Countries will have to determine whose rules apply, who sees transaction data, who handles disputes, who responds to cyberattacks and how financial crime is detected across jurisdictions.
The same principle applies to AI. Banks cannot meaningfully govern AI simply by purchasing sophisticated models. They must know where those models are deployed, how they make or influence decisions and what safeguards surround them. The RBI’s call for model inventories and board-approved AI governance is therefore an important governance principle: you cannot govern what you cannot identify.
For Nigeria and other African economies, the lesson is particularly relevant. The emerging digital economy will not be determined solely by who builds the most impressive applications. It will also be determined by who builds the infrastructure and governance systems that allow those applications to operate safely across borders.
BrandiQ Verdict
BRICS is not yet building a digital currency bloc. It is discussing something potentially more practical: interoperable payment infrastructure.
That distinction matters. Financial power in the digital age may belong less to whoever invents the next currency than to whoever builds the rails through which millions of transactions travel. If BRICS succeeds in linking fast-payment systems and, eventually, CBDCs, it could add a new layer to the architecture of international finance.
But the technology will be the easier part. The difficult work will involve trust, regulation, cybersecurity, foreign-exchange arrangements and political agreement among economies with very different financial systems.
The same lesson applies to AI. As Malhotra’s intervention makes clear, innovation without governance creates fragility, while governance without innovation creates stagnation. The durable financial systems of the future will need both.
For Africa, the strategic question is no longer whether the world is becoming digital. It is whether African countries will merely use other people’s digital rails – or help design, govern and own the infrastructure of the next global economy.
