India is likely to pitch a cross-border digital payment system at the 18th BRICS Summit, scheduled to be held in New Delhi on September 12 and 13, government sources aware of the matter said.
A senior government official clarified that de-dollarisation or the creation of a BRICS currency is not currently on India’s primary agenda. Instead, the focus is on developing a cross-border digital payments ecosystem that can facilitate transactions among member countries using their respective national currencies.
“We will get to know about the currency payment by September 10. It is not about BRICS currency nor is it about de-dollarisation. We will have to see what language they approve for digital currency cross-border payment. It is more about national currencies. On digital currency cross-border payment, we will have to see what sort of language is approved,” the official told TNIE.
BRICS finance ministers are scheduled to meet this week, with the nomenclature and language for the proposed cross-border digital payments initiative expected to be finalised by September 10, the official said. The official reiterated that the initiative should not be construed as a move towards a common BRICS currency or as a de-dollarisation mechanism.
At the 2025 BRICS Summit, leaders backed the BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism to facilitate innovative financial practices and approaches for projects and programmes, with the aim of finding “acceptable mechanisms of financing in local currencies”. While the declaration did not directly call for the creation of a BRICS currency or de-dollarisation, it reflected the bloc’s broader push to increase the use of national currencies in trade and financial transactions.
The 2025 BRICS Declaration also noted progress in discussions on a possible cross-border payments system among member countries and welcomed a technical report outlining ways to improve interoperability between BRICS payment systems. The proposed system seeks to make cross-border transactions faster, cheaper, safer and more transparent while improving access and efficiency.
A joint statement for the 2026 BRICS Summit is expected to be issued by Friday.
India is holding the rotating presidency of BRICS for the fourth time under the official motto, “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability”.
Leaders and delegations from the full BRICS membership — Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates — along with invited partner countries are expected to participate in the summit.
