In January 2026 comnews.ru He published the first analysis of BRICS Pay with the subtitle "BRICS-Let's be united." Then it was a prospect. Five months later, this is an active negotiating position at the level of the chairman of the bloc.
Brazil has sent an official proposal to include BRICS Pay in the agenda of the Indian summit in 2026. Russia supported it. China is consistently developing CIPS and the digital yuan. India, as the host of the summit, is a key voice.
What is BRICS Pay?
It is not a cryptocurrency or a substitute for national currencies. BRICS Pay is a settlement infrastructure: a single payment platform based on CBDCs (digital currencies of central banks), which allows the countries of the bloc to make settlements directly, without passing through dollar correspondent banks.
The principle is the same as that of SWIFT, but without a private infrastructure and without American control over transactions. Each country retains its own currency and its own central bank — BRICS Pay only provides a technical bridge between them.
Why the Drex–UAE precedent is important
In June 2026, the Central Bank of Brazil confirmed that the first phase of the CBDC bridge pilot between the Brazilian Drex digital real and the UAE digital dirhams had been successfully completed. Direct B2B transactions without correspondent banks took place.
This is a working precedent. If a two—way bridge works, then a multi-way BRICS Pay is a matter of scaling the architecture, not reinventing the wheel. That is why Brazilian lobbying has intensified right now.
What is being decided at the summit in India
The BRICS Summit in India is expected to take place in autumn 2026. Two types of decisions can be made on it. First: a policy statement on the priority of BRICS Pay with a roadmap for implementation. Second: the technical mandate of the working group to develop a common specification. The first option is symbolism without binding steps. The second is the real movement towards launch.
In order for the second option to take place, India needs to support it. New Delhi has traditionally been cautious about issues that could complicate relations with Washington — US duties of 50% create an argument in favor of alternative settlement mechanisms, but the Indian bureaucracy is slow.
What does this mean for Russian business
Russian companies do not have direct access to BRICS Pay yet — the system has not been launched. But the horizon is becoming clearer: with a positive outcome from the summit, the technical mandate will appear by the end of 2026 or the beginning of 2027. Pilot transactions between the Central Banks of the bloc countries will take place in 2027-2028. Commercial access is possible with a successful pilot in 2028-2029.
Companies trading with China, India, Brazil and the UAE: follow the results of the Indian summit. This is the closest point that determines when the calculations within the BRICS without SWIFT will become a reality, not a concept.
