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BRICS PAY or BRICS Pay is a decentralized and independent payment messaging mechanism system that is affiliated with the BRICS organization. [1] [2]
The project is a joint venture developed by the BRICS member states to receive and make payments in their own local currencies. [3] [4] [5] [6] The venture was launched in 2018 by the BRICS Business Council. The team that cooperatively runs BRICS PAY consists of financial, banking technology experts from the four founding nations of BRICS, as well as South Africa. The purpose of BRICS PAY is to make international payments more safe, transparent, less costly and complicated, encouraging international cooperation between the quickly expanding BRICS members. [7]
On October 23, 2024, China has fully backed BRICS PAY. [1]
BRICS PAY will feature a decentralized Cross-border messaging system (DCMS), developed by scientists of the Center of Saint-Petersburg State University of Russia. DCMS operates, transparently, without any central owner or hub. Participants manage their own nodes, allegedly making the system resistant to external abuse, control or interference. The system does not feature mandatory transaction fees, but allows participants to optionally charge one another if they choose so. DCMS automatically builds transaction routes between participants, aiming to ensure reliable communication even in case that direct transmission is unavailable. The goal is to minimize settlement imbalances between counterparties. Messages will be encrypted and signed, with multiple encryption mechanisms available. Participants can establish currency conversion rates and transaction limits. With recommended settings, DCMS claims to reach 20,000 messages per second, while on the other hand not posing minimal hardware requirements. DCMS is also planned to be open source, after passing the piloting phase. [8]
The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (Swift), legally S.W.I.F.T. SC, is a cooperative established in 1973 in Belgium and owned by the banks and other member firms that use its service. SWIFT provides the main messaging network through which international payments are initiated. It also sells software and services to financial institutions, mostly for use on its proprietary "SWIFTNet", and assigns ISO 9362 Business Identifier Codes (BICs), popularly known as "Swift codes".
ISO 9362 is an international standard for Business Identifier Codes (BIC), a unique identifier for business institutions, approved by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). BIC is also known as SWIFT-BIC, SWIFT ID, or SWIFT code, after the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), which is designated by ISO as the BIC registration authority. BIC was defined originally as Bank Identifier Code and is most often assigned to financial organizations; when it is assigned to non-financial organization, the code may also be known as Business Entity Identifier (BEI). These codes are used when transferring money between banks, particularly for international wire transfers, and also for the exchange of other messages between banks. The codes can sometimes be found on account statements.
Digital currency is any currency, money, or money-like asset that is primarily managed, stored or exchanged on digital computer systems, especially over the internet. Types of digital currencies include cryptocurrency, virtual currency and central bank digital currency. Digital currency may be recorded on a distributed database on the internet, a centralized electronic computer database owned by a company or bank, within digital files or even on a stored-value card.
A currency crisis is a type of financial crisis, and is often associated with a real economic crisis. A currency crisis raises the probability of a banking crisis or a default crisis. During a currency crisis the value of foreign denominated debt will rise drastically relative to the declining value of the home currency. Generally doubt exists as to whether a country's central bank has sufficient foreign exchange reserves to maintain the country's fixed exchange rate, if it has any.
A payment system is any system used to settle financial transactions through the transfer of monetary value. This includes the institutions, payment instruments such as payment cards, people, rules, procedures, standards, and technologies that make its exchange possible. A payment system is an operational network which links bank accounts and provides for monetary exchange using bank deposits. Some payment systems also include credit mechanisms, which are essentially a different aspect of payment.
The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) is a payment integration initiative of the European Union for simplification of bank transfers denominated in euros. As of 2020, there were 36 members in SEPA, consisting of the 27 member states of the European Union, the four member states of the European Free Trade Association, and the United Kingdom. Some microstates participate in the technical schemes: Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City.
The United States dollar was established as the world's foremost reserve currency by the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944. It claimed this status from sterling after the devastation of two world wars and the massive spending of the United Kingdom's gold reserves. Despite all links to gold being severed in 1971, the dollar continues to be the world's foremost reserve currency. Furthermore, the Bretton Woods Agreement also set up the global post-war monetary system by setting up rules, institutions and procedures for conducting international trade and accessing the global capital markets using the US dollar.
BRICS is an intergovernmental organization comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates. BRICS was originally identified to highlight investment opportunities. The grouping evolved into a geopolitical bloc, with their governments meeting annually at formal summits and coordinating multilateral policies since 2009. Relations among BRICS are conducted mainly based on non-interference, equality, and mutual benefit.
Circle is a peer-to-peer payments technology company that now manages stablecoin USDC, a cryptocurrency the value of which is pegged to the U.S. dollar. It was founded by Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville in October 2013. Circle is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. USDC, the second largest stablecoin worldwide, is designed to hold at or near a stable price of $1. The majority of its stablecoin collateral is held in short-term U.S. government securities.
Fintech, a clipped compound of "financial technology", refers to the application of innovative technologies to products and services in the financial industry. This broad term encompasses a wide array of technological advancements in financial services, including mobile banking, online lending platforms, digital payment systems, robo-advisors, and blockchain-based applications such as cryptocurrencies. Fintech companies include both startups and established technology and financial firms that aim to improve, complement, or replace traditional financial services.
The Cross-border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) is a Chinese payment system that offers clearing and settlement services for its participants in cross-border renminbi (RMB) payments and trade. CIPS is backed by the People's Bank of China and was launched in 2015 as part of a policy effort to internationalize the use of China’s currency.
A central bank digital currency is a digital currency issued by a central bank, rather than by a commercial bank. It is also a liability of the central bank and denominated in the sovereign currency, as is the case with physical banknotes and coins.
The System for Transfer of Financial Messages, abbreviated SPFS, is a Russian equivalent of the SWIFT financial transfer system, developed by the Central Bank of Russia. The system has been in successful development since 2014, when the United States government threatened to disconnect the Russian Federation from the SWIFT system.
Dedollarisation refers to countries reducing reliance on the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency, medium of exchange or as a unit of account. It also entails the creation of an alternative global financial and technological system in order to gain more economic independence by circumventing the dependence on the Western World-controlled systems, such as SWIFT financial transfers network for the international trade and payments, which could be economically weaponised by America and it's Western World allies against other nations. Since the establishment of the Bretton Woods system, the US dollar has been used as the medium for international trade. The United States Department of the Treasury exercises considerable oversight over the SWIFT financial transfers network, and consequently has a huge sway on the global financial transactions systems, with the ability to impose economic sanctions on foreign entities and individuals. Many entities, such as BRICS, are working on creating an alternative to the SWIFT for a more balanced world.
Digital renminbi, or Digital Currency Electronic Payment, is a central bank digital currency issued by China's central bank, the People's Bank of China. It is the first digital currency to be issued by a major economy, undergoing public testing as of April 2021. The digital RMB is legal tender and has equivalent value with other forms of renminbi, also known as the Chinese yuan (CNY), such as bills and coins.
The Russia–EU gas dispute flared up in March 2022 following the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Russia and the major EU countries clashed over the issue of payment for natural gas pipelined to Europe by Russia's Gazprom, amidst sanctions on Russia that were expanded in response to Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. In June, Gazprom claimed it was obliged to cut the flow of gas to Germany by more than half, as a result of such sanctions that prevented the Russian company from receiving its turbine component from Canada. On 26 September 2022, three of the four pipes of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines were sabotaged. This resulted in a record release of 115,000 tonnes of methane (CH4) – an equivalent of 15 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) – and is believed to have made a contribution to global warming.
Russia defaulted on part of its foreign currency denominated debt on 27 June 2022, because of funds being stuck in Euroclear. This was its first such default since 1918, back then it was just ruble-denominated bonds, not foreign currency debt. Before that, on 2 June, Russia defaulted on the 30-day interest, incorrectly not counting interest for the grace period, but a failure to pay $1.9 million was not sufficient to trigger a cross-default across other instruments, because the minimum threshold is an amount of at least $75 million, according to documents for other Russian eurobonds. The default occurred due to technicalities as the payment in dollars was impossible due to the sanctions by US and EU authorities, but did not mark an actual lack of capability to pay its debts.
The Digital Rupee (e₹) or eINR or E-Rupee is a tokenised digital version of the Indian Rupee, issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The Digital Rupee was proposed in January 2017 and launched on 1 December 2022. Digital Rupee is using blockchain distributed-ledger technology.
FedNow is an instant payment service developed by the Federal Reserve for depository institutions in the United States, which allows individuals and businesses to send and receive money. The service launched on July 20, 2023. Banks will be able to build products on top of the FedNow platform. By 2024, hundreds of banks and credit unions were reportedly utilizing the service.
mBridge is a multiple central bank digital currency platform developed to support real-time, peer-to-peer, cross-border payments and foreign exchange transactions using CBDCs. Based on a blockchain called the mBridge Ledger, the platform is designed to ensure compliance with jurisdiction-specific policy and legal requirements, regulations, and governance needs.
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