BRICS nations should link payment systems, trade in local currencies: Piyush Goyal at BRICS Business Forum
At the inaugural session of the BRICS Business Forum 2026, held alongside the BRICS Summit, the Union Commerce and Industry Ministry called for linking the instant payment systems of BRICS member and partner countries.
The address also urged greater use of local (national) currencies for trade settlement among BRICS economies instead of routing transactions through third-country reserve currencies.
It was noted that India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has already been linked with payment systems of 11 countries, with further expansion planned.
The address framed BRICS economic cooperation — spanning roughly 40% of global GDP and about half the world's population — as a source of jobs, wealth and shared prosperity for member economies, alongside a call for cooperation on emerging and digital technologies.
Local-Currency Trade Settlement vs. Reserve-Currency Trade
Most international trade is invoiced and settled in a small set of reserve currencies (chiefly the US dollar), which exposes trading partners to exchange-rate risk, transaction costs, and dependence on the reserve-currency country's financial system. Local-currency settlement means two trading countries invoice and pay each other directly in their own currencies (or through mutually held currency balances), reducing this dependency.
Key Details
- India already operates a Rupee-based international trade settlement mechanism under RBI's A.P. (DIR Series) Circular dated 11 July 2022, using Special Rupee Vostro Accounts opened by Indian banks for correspondent banks of the partner country.
- Under this mechanism, Indian importers pay in INR into the partner country's Special Vostro Account, and Indian exporters are paid from balances in that same account — avoiding the need for a third-currency conversion.
- RBI consolidated and updated the Special Rupee Vostro Account framework via a single circular in 2026, reflecting its increasing use.
- Local-currency settlement is distinct from a common BRICS currency proposal (which has not materialised); the BRICS approach so far favours bilateral local-currency and payment-linkage arrangements rather than a single shared unit.
The call to "trade in local currencies" made at the Business Forum reflects the same rationale already operationalised in India's rupee-trade-settlement framework — reducing dependence on third-currency intermediation — now proposed as a broader principle across the BRICS grouping.
Cross-Border Linkage of Instant Payment Systems (UPI as a Model)
Unified Payments Interface (UPI), developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and launched in 2016, is a real-time retail payment system enabling instant bank-to-bank transfers via mobile devices. India has pursued bilateral linkages of UPI with the fast-payment systems of other countries to enable low-cost, real-time cross-border retail payments, bypassing card networks and correspondent-banking delays.
Key Details
- UPI has been linked or made interoperable with payment systems in several countries to date, cited at the Business Forum as covering 11 countries.
- Such linkages are typically bilateral central-bank-to-central-bank/NPCI arrangements (e.g., India-Singapore's UPI-PayNow linkage was among the earliest, launched 2023), distinct from a single multilateral BRICS-wide payment platform.
- The proposal for linking BRICS members' payment systems draws on this template, extending bilateral linkage logic to a multilateral grouping rather than creating one common gateway.
The call to "link payment systems" at the Business Forum extends India's existing UPI-linkage diplomacy to the multilateral BRICS platform, positioning India's domestic digital public infrastructure as an exportable model for the bloc's broader de-dollarisation-adjacent payments agenda.
- BRICS (11 members, as of 2026) represents roughly 40% of global GDP and about half the world's population, per figures cited at the forum.
- India's UPI has been linked with payment systems of 11 countries as of the 2026 statement.
- RBI's rupee trade settlement mechanism (Special Rupee Vostro Accounts) was notified via circular dated 11 July 2022.
- BRICS Business Forum 2026 was held alongside the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi (12-13 September 2026).