BRICS Bridge: Sustainable payment system ‘outside the sanctions’ field’

The Russian Finance Ministry has announced plans to launch the BRICS Bridge platform, designed to conduct cross-border payments between the member states, which currently include Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia.

🌏 According to the ministry, the initiative aims to increase the speed and accessibility of financial transactions, as well as ensuring sustainable payments “outside the sanctions’ field.”

🌏 The platform’s main idea is to use digital financial assets (DFA) issued by the central banks of the BRICS members.

🌏 These assets are supposed to be linked to the member states’ national currencies, which will allow the sides to make payments almost instantly with minimal costs.

🌏 Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov explained that the focus would be put on using modern technological solutions to simplify and improve payments-related procedures rather than creating a single payment instrument for BRICS countries.

🌏 The platform, which will be compatible with traditional real-time payment systems, is still being hammered out, with the Finance Ministry stressing that the project will be implemented on a stage-by-stage basis.

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