BRICS Pay history
Timeline of BRICS Pay: from the BRICS Business Council launch in 2018 to full operational phase by 2030.
The whole story on one chart
All 8 key milestones on a single horizontal scale. Detailed notes below.
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2018
Initiative launched
The BRICS Business Council launched BRICS Pay as a research initiative.
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17.11.2020
Moscow Declaration
BRICS leaders set up the Payments Task Force and formally endorsed the project.
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03.2024
Tech report
DCMS technical specification published — 20,000 messages/sec.
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23.10.2024
China endorses
Kazan summit. China officially announces full support for BRICS Pay.
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2025
Pilot for Russians
H1: pilot acceptance zones in Türkiye, Egypt, the Maldives and Sri Lanka.
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2026 Q4
All BRICS+
India, Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia connected. India holds BRICS chairmanship.
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2027 Q3
CBDC integration
Digital rouble, e-CNY, e-INR, DREX — single bridging infrastructure.
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2030
Full phase
15–20% of world settlement. Target year voiced by Russian Deputy FM Sergey Ryabkov.
📜 Foundation phase
Initiative launched
BRICS Pay was launched by the BRICS Business Council. The working group included experts from the founding countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa. Goal — a shared infrastructure for cross-border payments in national currencies.
First stage in South Africa
Active work on the digital system. South Africa was the only one of the five BRICS founders without its own national payment system; rolling out there became the testing ground for the technology.
Moscow Declaration
BRICS leaders adopted the Moscow Declaration, endorsed progress on the payment system and set up the BRICS Payments Task Force to coordinate infrastructure development.
BFT launch
Digital Bank BRICS issued the BRICS Food Token (BFT) — a commodity token tied to a basket of food and water for settlements in the food trade between BRICS countries.
Technology report
A report on the blockchain payment system with CBDC integration was published. DCMS performance fixed at 20,000 messages per second.
🎯 Key events of 2024
Pilot at the BRICS Business Forum
System demo at the BRICS Business Forum in Moscow. Participants received test physical cards with a QR on the back and a balance of 500 RUB to test the payment scenario.
16th summit in Kazan
BRICS leaders discussed the future of the payment system. On 23 October 2024 China officially announced full support for BRICS Pay (Voice of America). The Kazan Declaration was adopted, fixing the course toward an independent settlement system in national currencies.
mBridge reaches MVP
The multilateral CBDC project mBridge reached MVP. The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) withdrew from governance; the project moved under the control of five central banks (China, Hong Kong, Thailand, UAE, Saudi Arabia). A parallel foundation for BRICS Pay.
Launch for foreigners in Russia
First commercial pilot: foreign tourists in Russia can pay for goods and services through BRICS Pay by QR.
🚀 2025–2026: expansion
Expansion for Russians
BRICS Pay payments become available to Russians abroad in Türkiye, Egypt, the Maldives and Sri Lanka.
Rio de Janeiro summit
The 17th BRICS summit reaffirmed the course toward national-currency settlement. At his press conference Russian FM Sergey Lavrov pinned end of 2026 as the BRICS Pay pilot launch target.
mBridge surpasses $55 bn
mBridge processed more than 4,000 cross-border transactions totalling ≈$55.5 bn. About 95% of the volume — digital yuan. The largest CBDC-settlement case to date and a parallel foundation for BRICS Pay.
RBI puts BRICS CBDC Bridge on the agenda
The Reserve Bank of India has proposed putting the BRICS CBDC Bridge on the agenda of the 2026 BRICS summit. The idea — to connect the CBDCs of all BRICS+ members to simplify trade and tourism. Berliner Zeitung sees the prospect of a 2026 BRICS Pay launch as a real alternative to dollar infrastructure.
India’s chairmanship
BRICS chairmanship passes to India (New Delhi). The system is planned to enter its full operational phase, with financial institutions of all members connected.
🔭 Long-term horizon
Working prototype
Per Freedom Finance Global, a working BRICS Pay prototype takes shape in 2027–2028. Stable integration of national systems and CBDC tooling.
Realistic target year
Analysts estimate that by 2030 BRICS Pay could handle 15–20% of world trade settlement and become a meaningful parallel international-payments infrastructure.
SWIFT was built over half a century. India’s UPI took 9 years to reach 49% of cashless. BRICS Pay is bigger than either by reach: 11 member states + partners. Coordination takes years, and that’s a healthy process.