Brazil does not support BRICS payment system, says ministry

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Russia’s proposal for a specific payment system for the BRICS – the bloc composed of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – does not have the support of the Brazilian government, said the secretary of International Economic Affairs of the Ministry of Economy, Erivaldo Alfredo Gomes on April 14. The suggestion was presented a few weeks ago by Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov.

“This is not a working topic; it is not on Brazil’s agenda,” the secretary said in a press interview. He informed that Russia presented the suggestion in a recent Brics meeting, but it is not a consensus among the countries in the group.

According to the secretary of the Ministry of Economy, Brazil defends a more agile system than the Swift platform, used for about 40 years. According to Gomes, the Brazilian government believes that the elaboration of a new payment system, which allows the clearing of international transactions on the same day, should be discussed globally, not restricted to a group of countries.

“It makes sense to discuss how to establish a new platform. Brazil understands that this should be multilateral, global. Not a specific solution for some countries. Even to avoid fragmentation”, justified the secretary.

According to Gomes, the existence of several simultaneous payment systems would lead to inefficiency on an international scale. “Can you imagine making a Pix for your mother and using another payment system to transfer money to your brother? This fragmentation is not good,” he explained.

In the secretary’s evaluation, the countries should discuss the modernization of international payment systems to reduce the time of transactions amid the advance of the digital economy. “We observe that payment in SWIFT sometimes takes two or three days to reach the subject of the other country. It is an expensive, bureaucratic, time-consuming process that is not compatible with the demands of today’s economy,” he said.

Gomes defended that the new payment system should be managed by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), a Swiss-based institution that brings together the world’s central banks.

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Earlier this month, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov defended the creation of a payment system of its own among the BRICS countries. He justified the proposal based on the deterioration of Russia’s economic situation with the international sanctions imposed after the beginning of the war with Ukraine.

In the Russian government’s evaluation, the new system would bring more financial independence to emerging countries by expanding the use of national currencies. For Siluanov, there is a need to accelerate the integration of payment and card systems and to create an intermediation system of its own among the BRICS members.

With information from Agência do Brasil