ST. PETERSBURG: The creation of a BRICS digital payment platform, BRICS Bridge, will help increase mutual trade between the member countries, Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko said.

“The Russian Finance Ministry and the Central Bank of Russia together with BRICS partners are working on the BRICS leaders’ report on now to upgrade the international forex and financial system. It will contain a number of initiatives and recommendations. Consideration of this report may result in creating a BRICS multilateral digital payment platform (BRICS Bridge), which will help bridge the gap between the financial markets of the BRICS member countries and increase mutual trade,” Matviyenko said at the BRICS Parliamentary Forum in St. Petersburg on Friday.

Work on an independent payment system, “immune to political pressure, abuse and external sanctions interference”, is ongoing as a follow-up to the decisions adopted at last year’s BRICS summit in South Africa, she said as quoted by Russian news agency
Interfax.

If this system is created, it may use digital currencies of the BRICS central banks, and their exchange rate will be tied to the value of national currencies, Matviyenko said.

“In addition, this digital settlement and payment platform will be decentralised, that said, no participants will be able to restrict the activities of others. If the Russian-proposed initiative is approved, the BRICS countries will have to conduct coordinated legislative work to put a national digital currency into circulation and use it in cross-border settlements,” she said.

Source: Emirates News Agency