RBI proposes linking BRICS digital currencies

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has proposed linking the official digital currencies of BRICS nations to facilitate smoother cross-border trade and tourism payments, according to information. The move could help reduce reliance on the US dollar at a time of rising geopolitical tensions and shifting global trade dynamics.The RBI has recommended to the government that the proposal be included on the agenda of the 2026 BRICS summit, which India is set to host later this year. If taken forward, this would mark the first formal proposal to interlink central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) of BRICS members, which include Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, along with recently inducted members such as the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Indonesia.
The initiative comes amid growing interest within the BRICS bloc in strengthening financial cooperation and improving payment efficiency among member countries. At the 2025 BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, leaders had already called for greater interoperability among national payment systems to make cross-border transactions faster and more cost-effective.The proposed linkage of CBDCs is aimed at simplifying trade finance and tourism-related payments, while enhancing settlement efficiency between member nations. The RBI has previously expressed interest in connecting India’s digital rupee, or e-rupee, with other countries’ digital currencies to speed up cross-border transactions and expand the global use of the Indian currency, while maintaining that such efforts are not intended to promote de-dollarisation.All major BRICS members are currently running pilot programmes for their digital currencies, though none has fully launched a CBDC at scale. India’s e-rupee, launched in December 2022, has attracted around 7 million retail users so far. China, meanwhile, has indicated plans to expand the international use of its digital yuan.
The RBI has actively encouraged adoption of the e-rupee by enabling offline transactions, introducing programmability for government subsidy transfers, and allowing fintech firms to offer digital currency wallets.For the proposed BRICS CBDC linkage to work, discussions are expected to focus on interoperable technology frameworks, governance structures, regulatory alignment, and mechanisms to manage trade imbalances. One of the ideas under consideration includes the use of bilateral foreign exchange swap arrangements between central banks, with periodic settlements on a weekly or monthly basis.Past efforts to boost trade settlement in local currencies among BRICS members have faced challenges. In earlier arrangements between India and Russia, large balances of the Indian rupee accumulated on the Russian side, prompting India’s central bank to allow such balances to be invested in domestic bonds.
The renewed focus on BRICS financial integration comes as the bloc has regained attention amid revived trade-war rhetoric and tariff threats from the United States. US President Donald Trump has previously described BRICS as “anti-American” and warned of possible tariffs on countries aligning closely with the grouping.While global interest in CBDCs has cooled somewhat due to the rapid rise of stablecoins, India continues to position the e-rupee as a safer and more regulated alternative. RBI Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar recently cautioned that stablecoins pose risks to monetary stability, fiscal policy, banking intermediation and systemic resilience, while also raising concerns over illicit payments and circumvention of regulatory controls.India has expressed concerns that widespread stablecoin adoption could fragment national payment systems and weaken the country’s digital payments ecosystem, reinforcing the central bank’s push for a sovereign, regulated digital currency framework.