RBI’s Digital Currencies Plan for BRICS Meet Holds Key to Quicker Global Payments

Source: Lokmat Times | Original Published At: 2026-04-21 12:37:22 UTC

Key Points

• RBI proposes placing CBDC linking among BRICS countries on the 2026 BRICS summit agenda, to be chaired by India
• The approach focuses on interoperability between national digital currencies rather than creating a single supernational currency
• Objective is to facilitate faster cross-border payments for trade, tourism, and financial transactions without compromising monetary sovereignty
• Primary motivation is reducing dependence on the US dollar and traditional systems like SWIFT
• BRICS expanded to include Iran, Ethiopia, UAE, Egypt, and Indonesia alongside original members Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa
• India and UAE previously signed a deal to link their CBDCs and run joint pilot programmes
• India's e-rupee has 7 million retail users since its 2022 launch