Check and trust: BRICS has started testing new payment mechanisms
BRICS members are conducting pilot projects on a bilateral basis to test payment platforms, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Ivan Chebeskov told Izvestia. This applies, among other things, to such Russian initiatives as BRICS Bridge and BRICS Clear, a common payment system and settlement and clearing infrastructure. They will make it possible to safely invest in the economies of the BRICS member countries. The association is now really discussing increasing investments in joint infrastructure and the possibility of involving the private sector in these mechanisms, said the Deputy Minister of Finance of the UAE, Yunis Haji al-Khoury. However, experts believe that the contradictions within the BRICS, as well as the threat of Western sanctions, may slow down the implementation of these plans.
Which platforms are being prepared by the BRICS countries
The BRICS countries have launched pilot testing of new payment platforms on a bilateral basis, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Ivan Chebeskov told Izvestia.
— The discussion continues on all our initiatives that we put forward in 2024. Despite the fact that no specific platforms have been created yet, there are initial results — this is a certain piloting on a bilateral basis of some of these initiatives. And the second is a more active discussion on the need to create an alternative infrastructure," Chebeskov said.
During its BRICS presidency in 2024, Russia proposed to its partners in the association to create the BRICS Bridge settlement platform, which would allow international payments to be made without using the banking infrastructure of the United States and other Western countries. In terms of its functionality, BRICS Bridge should become an alternative to the SWIFT system. In addition, at that time, the Russian Federation launched work on the creation of the BRICS countries' depository system, BRICS Clear. We are talking about a system of securities turnover within the association, similar to those that exist in the West, but whose use is limited to the Russian Federation and a number of other countries.
— In 2022-2024, it looked like something new that the Russian Federation was offering, [because] Russia was having difficulties. This has now been taken as a basis by most countries, and there is a need for it. There should be such systems in the future," said Ivan Chebeskov.
He stressed that "many partners are still hesitant to publicly discuss big platform solutions because they fear the geopolitical consequences." At the same time, they are ready to work on a bilateral basis, conduct discussions and pilot testing. Recall that at the beginning of last year, US President Donald Trump threatened the BRICS countries with 100% tariffs if they tried to replace the dollar.
In practice, Washington does put pressure on individual BRICS members, primarily India and China, through trade duties. Moreover, one of the main demands of Donald Trump is to increase imports of goods and services from the United States. Most experts, however, point out that such blatant pressure only encourages the BRICS countries to accelerate the creation of independent payment instruments.
When will the BRICS digital platforms become operational
Both projects — BRICS Bridge and BRICS Clear — are at the stage of conceptual elaboration, and the realistic horizon for their partial launch is 2027-2028, subject to the political will of the key participants, Alisa Kazelko, a member of the Russian Export Control Association and Valdai expert, said in an interview with Izvestia.
— The strategic logic is obvious: today, settlements between India and Brazil, Russia and South Africa still go through the dollar infrastructure, creating sanctions risks for the entire chain. If the platforms work, they will remove this point of vulnerability and become a long—term insurance for the entire Global South, especially as the BRICS expands with new members from Africa and Latin America," the expert noted.
However, it cannot be said that the implementation of the initiatives is proceeding without problems. The threat of Western sanctions is affecting, since for many BRICS countries, the United States and the EU remain important trading partners. We must not forget about the contradictions within the association. BRICS is not the EU: there are no supranational mechanisms forcing us to move towards integration, and each country will integrate new platforms at its own pace.
For example, India perceives the BRICS financial initiatives as a "Chinese project in an international package" and is acting extremely cautiously. Brazil declares openness to de-dollarization, but its financial sector is deeply integrated into Western infrastructure.
Therefore, a realistic scenario over a ten—year horizon is the formation of a parallel currency contour within the BRICS while maintaining the dollar in external settlements. The pace of this process will be determined not by the summits, but by the dynamics of US sanctions as the main structural incentive for de-dollarization, Kazelko concluded.
BRICS countries switch to trading in national currencies
However, most of the calculations in the association are already carried out in national currencies, and this share will grow, Ivan Chebeskov emphasized. In the spring of 2025, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed that 67% of mutual trade is paid for in the currencies of the BRICS countries, while the dollar's share has dropped to 33%.
"There are opportunities to increase investments in infrastructure, as well as to involve the private sector in using and benefiting from public—private partnerships in many areas, including services such as healthcare, education, and then infrastructure," said Yunis Haji al—Khoury, Deputy Minister of Finance of the UAE.
BRICS has increased significantly in recent years. Since 2024, Egypt, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Ethiopia have become members of the association, and Indonesia in 2025. Currently, it consists of 10 countries, and the same number have the status of partners. The combined share of the BRICS countries in the global economy reached a record 39.2% by the end of 2025. The weight of the Western G7 group now accounts for only 28% of global GDP.
It is important that the countries of the association expand the scope of joint cooperation. The New BRICS Development Bank operates, which has financed more than 100 infrastructure projects. Since 2015, a pool of conditional foreign exchange reserves has been launched, which was created to provide mutual support to the BRICS countries in the event of a shortage of dollar liquidity or a balance of payments crisis. The countries of the association have a common satellite grouping for remote sensing of the Earth, a network university, as well as a business council.
Russia is one of the leaders of the BRICS, this association enhances its status on the world stage and connects it with the fast—growing markets of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. After the closure of the European markets, BRICS became the main buyer of Russian raw materials, and the association participates in the development of logistics routes such as North–South and the Transarctic Transport Corridor. At the same time, the West remains a significant factor in international politics, and neither Russia nor the other BRICS countries can completely abandon cooperation with it.
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