India’s central bank has asked the government to come up with a plan to link the digital currencies of BRICS countries and put it on the agenda of this year’s summit, in a move that could make trade and tourism payments easier and lessen dependence on the U.S. dollar.
According to a Reuters report, citing two people familiar with the matter, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has proposed that leaders at the 2026 BRICS summit in India discuss ways to make the digital currencies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa interoperable.
From National CBDC Trials to a BRICS-Wide Framework
The idea follows a 2025 BRICS declaration in Rio de Janeiro calling for greater interoperability among members’ payment systems to speed cross-border transactions.
All five core BRICS economies are testing CBDCs but have yet to fully roll them out. India’s e-rupee, launched in pilot form in December 2022, has drawn about 7 million retail users, as the RBI has tried to boost usage by enabling offline payments, programmable transfers such as subsidies, and allowing fintech firms to provide wallets.
China, meanwhile, has taken its e-CNY out of the trial phase and into wider real-world use and pledged to expand the digital yuan’s role.
Now, the RBI wants to bring these national experiments under a shared BRICS framework for interoperable digital currencies.
Tech Hurdles, Governance, and Trade Gaps
For any BRICS CBDC link to work, members will need to agree on shared technology standards, governance rules, and how to handle trade imbalances, one source said. Reluctance to adopt another country’s platforms could slow progress, the person added.
One option under study is to use bilateral FX swap lines between central banks, with weekly or monthly settlements, both sources said. Past attempts by Russia and India to settle more trade in local currencies stalled after Moscow accumulated rupee balances it struggled to deploy, prompting New Delhi to allow investment of those funds in local bonds.
Furthermore, Washington is likely to watch the initiative closely, as U.S. President Donald Trump has previously called BRICS “anti-American” and warned he could impose tariffs on members seeking alternatives to the dollar.
Could It Work, and What to Expect?
Shared standards for messaging, settlement, and FX conversion can be built, yet the real hurdle is trust: members would need to decide whose technology is to be used as the infrastructure for the system, who safeguards data, and how cyber risks are handled between countries that are often strategic rivals.
Governance and economics are just as tricky, because any framework has to decide how to handle persistent trade imbalances and who takes the currency risk.
India and Russia’s recent experience, when Moscow was left holding a pile of excess rupees that ultimately had to be invested in Indian bonds, shows how quickly local-currency arrangements can seize up if there is no solid way to recycle those balances.
If a BRICS CBDC link does take shape, it would curb the dollar’s dominance, as some intra-BRICS trade could gradually move off U.S. rails, slightly reducing dollar demand and giving members more room around U.S. sanctions.
