What is BRICS Pay, and can it rival the West’s SWIFT payments system?

What the report says

BRICS leaders used their September 12-13 summit in New Delhi to back work on BRICS Pay, a proposed cross-border payment system aimed at making international transactions easier in local currencies. Al Jazeera reports that the initiative is linked to the BRICS Business Council and is being advanced alongside efforts to expand local-currency trade and other payment channels.

The article says BRICS Pay is designed as a decentralised digital ecosystem that would connect national payment systems, allowing users, banks and companies to settle payments without relying on the dollar. It is being developed to work through tools such as QR codes, digital wallets and mobile applications. According to the report, the project is still in pilot and phased rollout stages and is not yet fully operational across all member states.

Al Jazeera notes that BRICS includes 11 countries after recent additions such as Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia, alongside the original members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The bloc’s members account for a large share of the world’s population and output, which helps explain why alternative payment infrastructure has become a recurring topic.

The report also places BRICS Pay in the context of Western systems such as SWIFT, which remains the main network for international bank messaging. It says the idea has gained urgency amid sanctions on Russia and broader interest in reducing dependence on Western-controlled financial channels, although the article stresses that BRICS leaders did not commit to replacing the dollar or creating a common currency.