Russia’s proposal to set up a specific payment system for the BRICS – a bloc made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – does not have the support of the Brazilian government, said today (14) the secretary of International Economic Affairs of the Ministry of Economy, Erivaldo Alfredo Gomes. The suggestion was put forward a few weeks ago by Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov.
“This is not a work topic, it is not on Brazil’s agenda,” said the secretary in a press conference. He informed that the suggestion was presented by Russia in a recent meeting of the BRICS, but there is no consensus among the countries of 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 understands that the development of a new payment system, which allows the clearing of international transactions on the same day, should be discussed globally, without being restricted to a group of countries.
“It makes sense for us to have a discussion about how to establish a new platform. Brazil understands that this must be done at a multilateral, global level. Not a country-specific solution. 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 assessment, countries should discuss the modernization of international payment systems, to reduce transaction times amid the advancement of the digital economy. “We observe that a payment on Swift sometimes takes two or three days to reach the guy in 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 be managed by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), an institution based in Switzerland that brings together the world’s central banks.
Financial independence
Earlier this month, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov defended the creation of their own system of payments between the BRICS countries. He justified the proposal on the basis of the deterioration of Russia’s economic situation with international sanctions imposed after the start of the war with Ukraine.
In the assessment of the Russian government, the new system would bring more financial independence to emerging countries, with the expansion of the use of national currencies. For Siluanov, there is a need to speed up the integration of payment and card systems and to create an own intermediation system between BRICS members.
