Should BRICS members adopt a wholesale digital payment system?

Jeremy Srouji (), Dominique Torre () and Qing Xu
Additional contact information
Jeremy Srouji: GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - UNS - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (1965 - 2019) - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UniCA - Université Côte d'Azur, UniCA - Université Côte d'Azur
Dominique Torre: UniCA - Université Côte d'Azur, GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - UNS - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (1965 - 2019) - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UniCA - Université Côte d'Azur
Qing Xu: UCL FGES - Université Catholique de Lille - Faculté de gestion, économie et sciences - ICL - Institut Catholique de Lille - UCL - Université catholique de Lille, LITL - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire des transitions de Lille - UCL FGES - Université Catholique de Lille - Faculté de gestion, économie et sciences - ICL - Institut Catholique de Lille - UCL - Université catholique de Lille - JUNIA - JUNIA - UCL - Université catholique de Lille

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: This article examines proposals to establish a BRICS central bank digital currency (CBDC) aimed at facilitating trade flows among the members, as part of their broader discussions around reforming the international monetary and financial system. It sets these proposals within the context of global CBDC efforts, South-South convergence processes, and the challenges the BRICS have faced in navigating global geo-political tensions, while aligning national CBDC efforts with groupwide initiatives. We focus on a Brazilian proposal to establish a unified BRICS cross-border payment system, seen as a first step towards a full-fledged BRICS CBDC. Our main finding is that, while this cross-border digital currency can be useful for smoothing payments and reducing the trade deficits of the smaller BRICS members, it does little to redress their asymmetric position vis-à-vis the larger country, China. The implication is that sustainable convergence among the grouping through the adoption of a unified cross-border currency would require a higher level of monetary and policy coordination than that set out in the Brazilian proposal.

Keywords: stablecoins; international trade; international currency; cross-border payments; BRICS; CBDC (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-06
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in PSL Quarterly Review, 2026, 79 (317), pp.121-140. ⟨10.13133/2037-3643/19528⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05715955

DOI: 10.13133/2037-3643/19528

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().