Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and BRICS Pay India sign new deal to strengthen local currency transactions within the bloc, aiming to reduce reliance on Western payment channels amid ongoing global shifts.
Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and the Indian arm of BRICS Pay have agreed to expand work on the bloc’s cross-border payments project, as BRICS members continue to look for faster ways to settle trade in their own currencies. According to Interfax, the deal was announced on Friday and is intended to explore how BRICS Pay can be linked with India’s existing payment infrastructure, while also laying the groundwork for pilot services and broader cross-border payment links.
The agreement brings together the Russian Direct Investment Fund, BRICS Pay India and Moscow-based JSC BRICS Pay. Interfax reported that BRICS Pay India will work with Indian banks, payment firms, merchants and other market participants, while JSC BRICS Pay will provide the technical platform. The fund said the initiative is meant to create an open and resilient payment network that can support trade and investment across BRICS, including settlements in national currencies. BRICS-related business council material says the system has been designed to connect existing payment channels rather than replace them, with early use cases including traveller payments before expansion into business-to-business trade.
The timing matters. Indian outlets reported ahead of the BRICS summit in New Delhi that India was preparing to pitch a cross-border digital payments framework rather than a common BRICS currency, with officials saying the emphasis is on interoperability between national systems. The New Indian Express said Indian policymakers were not making de-dollarisation the centrepiece of the agenda, but were focused on allowing transactions in local currencies. That approach aligns with earlier discussions cited by the BRICS Business Council, which said pilot tests for consumer payments were already carried out in Moscow in 2024.
BRICS Pay has been promoted as a way to reduce reliance on Western-linked payment rails and make transactions cheaper and quicker, though its development has also drawn scrutiny because of sanctions concerns. Payment Leaks described the project as a decentralised cross-border platform that links messaging and settlement tools with instant payment systems and central bank digital currency experiments, while noting that US authorities have viewed it as a possible sanctions-evasion risk. Even so, supporters say the project is less about creating a new currency than about building practical links between national payment systems. As India and Russia move ahead, the immediate goal appears to be narrower but more achievable: making it easier for travellers, students and businesses to pay across borders without surrendering control of domestic infrastructure.
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