The BRICS Cross-Border Payment Initiative (BCBPI) will use national currencies, instead of the US dollar. Russia’s finance ministry and central bank released a report detailing plans to transform the international monetary and financial system.
As the chair of BRICS for 2024, Russia proposed the creation of a BRICS Cross-Border Payment Initiative (BCBPI), in which members of the organization will use their national currencies to trade.
BRICS will likewise establish an alternative messaging infrastructure to circumvent the SWIFT system of interbank communication, which is overseen by the United States and subject to Western unilateral sanctions.
There are also plans for the establishment of a BRICS Grain Exchange and associated pricing agency, with centers for trade in commodities like grain, oil, natural gas, and gold, which can likewise be used to settle trade imbalances.
These proposals were outlined in the report “Improvement of the International Monetary and Financial System”, which was co-authored by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, the Bank of Russia, and the consulting firm Yakov and Partners.
In February 2024, the finance ministers and central bank governors of BRICS met in Sao Paulo, Brazil. There, the Russian representatives said they would prepare a report “for BRICS countries’ leaders with a list of initiatives and recommendations on ways to improve the international monetary and financial system”.
Russia’s Finance Minister Anton Siluanov explained the motivation:
“The current system is based on existing Western financial infrastructure and the use of reserve currencies. It is severely flawed and is increasingly used as a tool of political and economic pressure. Another reason for a reform of the international monetary and financial system is the geo-economic fragmentation that became a result of the abuse of trade and financial restrictions.”
The Russian BRICS chairmanship report argued that the international monetary and financial system (IMFS) is not only unjust but also inefficient, as it is a monopoly that suffers “from excessive reliance on a single currency and centralized financial infrastructure”.
The document noted that the “current IMFS is primarily serving interests of AEs” (advanced economies) – that is, largely the wealthy countries of the West.
As of 2023, the original five BRICS countries make up 32% of global GDP (measured at purchasing power parity, PPP), but have only 13.54% of voting shares in the IMF.
On the other hand, the G7 nations hold 41.27% of the voting shares in the IMF, despite the fact that they comprise just 30% of global GDP (PPP).
This should be fantastic for hackers, there’s new target(s) beside SWIFT.
If Swift could still be hacked, this payment needs to really ramp up their security processes pretty quick before some hacker steals money from itHope they’re successful for the sake of countries like Cuba, but I imagine this will take a long time to set up and work out the kinks.
This would be an massive undertaking. I’d expect it to take decades before it starts getting any results.
I mean we can already see the results today with Russia and China doing all their trade outside the dollar, and China increasingly doing currency swaps with other countries now. The dollar based economy is already shrinking as a result, and on top of that the US no longer has visibility into trade that’s happening globally the way they used it. For example, a lot of predictions of China’s economy slowing down was based on reduced imports from western countries using SWIFT system, but now we know that China was simply redirecting its trade away from the west and towards the Global South.
I dunno. Highly motivated, highly incentivized, backed by the most productive nations on the planet. I think those of us in the West are used to tranformative things taking forever because of the incompetence and the lack of incentives for the powers that be, and we forget how quickly our nations do transform things to harm us - DMCA, domestic surveillance, sharing intelligence, privatizing water, destroying habitats, etc.
i hope it doesnt. a dollar crisis will wipe us the fuck out.
I wonder what their actual goal is? Because actually posing a real, material threat to American economic hegemony results in your country experiencing regime change and people on forums a decade later arguing about whether you’re dead or in hiding with Elvis and Tupac.
That’s true for small countries that US is able to dominate economically and militarily. That is not possible to do with countries like Russia, India, or China. This is what it means to live in a multipolar world. The US is no longer the top dog who can just go around doing whatever it wants.
While it’s definitely true the US loves its war mongering, it’s economy is dependent entirely on China and India. If they try to invade either country, it’s game over for the US(and the world), and neither country is particularly vulnerable to the normal CIA methods. Falun gong in China, for example, is the CIA’s best attempt at trying to sell America to the Chinese via homegrown terrorism, and they’re so pathetically obvious it’s doubtful anyone in China has ever fallen for their shit.
Capitalism removed the tools by which the US is a threat, allowing brics to be possible.
Oh sorry I didn’t realize you were genuinely nuts.
LOL. A perfectly reasonable post and the only thing you can respond with is an ableist ad hominem. Good luck navigating the world around you !
It looks to be pushed by a few big countries who love to tamper with their monetary system which will be a big No No if they are part of the new system. This feels like a foot gun.
lmfao hard to think of a better example of a country tampering with its monetary system than the US printing trillions of dollars every few years 🤡
Cool. I can’t wait to accept 100 rubles just for it to be worth 50 rubles few days later. 🙄
