The BRICS group of nations are discussing the possibility of linkages between their respective fast payment systems and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Sanjay Malhotra said on Tuesday.
“Cross-border payments is an area of interest for all of us, including the BRICS, because we do feel that there is a lot of scope for reducing costs, especially for retail transactions and increasing speed,” Malhotra said at the FIBAC 2026 conference. “We have a BRICS task force on payments.”
“Look at UPI, for example. It is instantaneous. You have to wait for hours, even days for foreign remittances to take place. A lot of work is being done over there,” Malhotra said.
India will continue its efforts to internationalise the rupee and promote the use of local currencies for cross-border payments and trade, the governor said. “There are various options such as CBDC and linkages of fast payment systems, but it is still at the stage of discussion.”
On the use of local currencies, he said India is doing trade with a number of countries using local currencies. Volumes, however, are small. “We need to expand that. We have recently started doing MoUs with central banks so that we can make importers and exporters aware of using local currencies,” Malhotra said.
The BRICS bloc consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. India is hosting the 2026 edition of the annual summit.
Work is in progress for a greater cooperation on data, bringing about interoperability of digital public infrastructure and a common approach towards CBDCs.
On developing the corporate bond market, the governor said India is primarily a bank-led country. But, over the years, the share of banking credit in the total credit has decreased. NBFCs and corporate bonds have filled up the gap to a great extent. “I think all of us are working together to improve the corporate bond market.”
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