India to Push Cross-Border Digital Payments and CBDC Linkages at BRICS Summit

India is preparing to place cross-border digital payments and greater interoperability between central bank digital currencies among the important financial-cooperation issues before BRICS as New Delhi prepares to host the grouping’s 18th summit on 12–13 September 2026.

The initiative could eventually allow businesses, travellers and other users in BRICS economies to move money between participating countries more rapidly and at lower cost by linking national digital-payment infrastructure and sovereign digital currencies. The proposal remains under discussion, however, and no common BRICS CBDC network or settlement architecture has yet been approved.

Recent reporting indicates that India is likely to promote both seamless cross-border digital payments and greater adoption or interoperability of central bank digital currencies among BRICS members. Officials are also examining ways of expanding intra-BRICS trade settlement in national currencies and addressing imbalances in trade between members.

The proposal builds on work that has been underway for several months. In January 2026, the Reserve Bank of India recommended that linking the official digital currencies of BRICS countries be considered as part of the agenda for India’s BRICS chairship. The concept was aimed particularly at facilitating payments associated with trade and tourism.

Momentum has increased since then. On 11 August 2026, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra publicly confirmed that BRICS members were discussing potential linkages between their respective fast-payment systems and central bank digital currencies.

Malhotra said cross-border payments were an area of common interest because there was considerable scope to reduce transaction costs. He stressed, however, that various options remained on the table and that the process was still at the discussion stage.

The proposed architecture should therefore not be confused with the creation of a single BRICS currency.

India has explicitly distanced itself from proposals for a common BRICS currency. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal stated earlier in August that India did not support such a scheme. The emerging Indian approach is instead centred on enabling sovereign currencies and existing national payment systems to interact more efficiently across borders.

This distinction is important. Under a CBDC-interoperability model, India would retain the digital rupee, China could retain its own digital currency and other participating central banks would continue issuing and controlling their respective sovereign currencies. Technology and settlement arrangements would then be developed to allow those systems to communicate with one another.

Such an arrangement would be fundamentally different from replacing national currencies with a newly created BRICS monetary unit.

India’s own experience with digital payments gives it an important technological position within these discussions. The Unified Payments Interface, or UPI, has demonstrated how interoperable payment infrastructure can support near-instant retail transactions on a very large scale. India has subsequently been working to connect UPI and related payment systems internationally while also encouraging settlement in local currencies.

The RBI Governor has pointed to the contrast between domestic instant-payment systems and conventional international remittances, which can still take hours or days to complete. Faster payment-system linkages could potentially narrow that gap for international transactions.

BRICS members are therefore examining more than one possible route. One approach involves connecting fast-payment networks operated in individual member countries. Another involves interoperability between CBDCs issued directly by central banks. These approaches could eventually coexist rather than requiring the bloc to choose one universal system.

For India, the development of the e₹, or digital rupee, provides an additional technological foundation.

The digital rupee is a sovereign digital form of the Indian currency issued by the Reserve Bank of India. Unlike private cryptocurrencies, it represents a direct liability of the central bank and is denominated in the same rupee unit as physical cash and conventional bank money.

India has been progressively expanding real-world applications for the technology. In August, the government launched a CBDC-based Direct Benefit Transfer initiative under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana in Chandigarh and Dadra & Nagar Haveli, demonstrating how the digital currency can also be incorporated into government payment systems.

Cross-border interoperability would represent a considerably more complex use case.

Conventional international payments can involve correspondent banks, multiple financial intermediaries, currency conversions and separate national settlement systems. Each additional intermediary can introduce cost, processing time and compliance requirements.

A well-designed connection between sovereign digital currencies could potentially shorten parts of this chain. In principle, digital settlement infrastructure could allow transactions between participating countries to occur more directly while maintaining central-bank oversight.

For businesses, lower payment costs could make smaller international transactions more economical. For tourists and individuals sending remittances, faster settlement could reduce both delays and fees. For governments and central banks, such infrastructure could potentially improve transparency while retaining monetary sovereignty.

The economic significance is particularly relevant for BRICS because the grouping has expanded far beyond its original five members and now encompasses a large share of global population, economic output, energy production and trade.

Greater payment connectivity could therefore support the bloc’s wider effort to encourage commerce between member economies.

India also wants to expand the use of national currencies in international trade. The RBI has arrangements with central banks in countries including the UAE, Mauritius, Maldives and Indonesia intended to encourage settlement using local currencies, while New Delhi continues working to internationalise the rupee.

A BRICS payment initiative could complement these arrangements rather than replace them.

The broader objective would be to make it easier for an Indian importer or exporter, for example, to conduct a transaction with a partner in another BRICS economy without every payment necessarily having to travel through multiple foreign financial intermediaries.

Such a system would nevertheless face substantial challenges before becoming operational at scale.

Central banks would need to agree on technical standards, cybersecurity requirements, identity verification, anti-money-laundering safeguards, foreign-exchange conversion, settlement finality and mechanisms for resolving disputes. Differences between member countries’ financial regulations and capital-account regimes would also have to be accommodated.

Digital currencies themselves remain at very different stages of development across BRICS economies. Some countries have advanced CBDC pilots or established fast-payment platforms, while others are still examining their preferred technological and regulatory models.

Interoperability therefore requires more than simply connecting computer networks. Central banks must determine how transactions are authorised, which institution bears settlement risk, how exchange rates are determined and what information is shared between participating jurisdictions.

These issues help explain why the RBI Governor has emphasised that the discussions remain at an early stage.

At the same time, BRICS has been expanding cooperation on the wider digital economy. During the BRICS ICT Track held in Pune in August, member countries discussed Digital Public Infrastructure, digital governance and interoperable digital services. India emphasised principles including openness, interoperability, digital sovereignty, cybersecurity, privacy and national ownership.

A cross-border payment initiative fits naturally within this broader agenda.

The New Delhi summit could therefore mark an important political stage even if it does not immediately produce an operational CBDC network. Agreement among leaders to continue technical work or establish a formal roadmap would itself move the proposal from exploratory discussions towards a more structured programme.

India’s approach is also notable because it focuses on payment infrastructure rather than the creation of a new supranational currency.

Such a model could potentially deliver practical benefits of greater financial connectivity while allowing every BRICS member to retain control over its own currency and monetary policy.

The September summit will determine how far the member countries are prepared to take that idea.

For now, the confirmed position is narrower but still significant: BRICS central banks are discussing ways to connect fast-payment systems and CBDCs, India has pushed the issue during its 2026 chairship, and New Delhi is expected to place cross-border digital payments prominently before the September summit.

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