BRICS assessing Iran's idea of integrating payment systems

Member states of the BRICS group of nations are discussing Iran’s initiative to integrate their national payment systems within the group’s framework, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko said in an interview with Russian TASS news agency.

Hossein Eyvazlou, a member of the Executive Board of the National Development Fund of Iran (NDFI), proposed to set up a joint fund for the national wealth of BRICS member states during the meeting of the “BRICS International Futurological Forum, Smart Civilization” that was held alongside the BRICS Summit from July 10 to 11 in the Russian capital of Moscow.

"Various options related to integrating financial markets of the BRICS members, [such as] payments in national currencies and new mechanisms of mutual financial settlements — including [those suggested] by Iran — are now being considered," he said, commenting on Tehran’s proposal to integrate payment systems of the BRICS member countries as Russia and Iran had done with their Mir and Shetab electronic banking clearance and automated payments systems.

The Russian official underlined that "creating clearance and payment infrastructure that would be independent and resilient to the pressure of sanctions" would be an important step in bolstering the financial sovereignty of BRICS.

However, Iran’s initiative is still being discussed and "it is yet too early to speak of any final parameters," he added.

BRICS is a major economic alliance of nations of the Global South, founded by Russia, China, India, and Brazil, with South Africa joining later. Recently, BRICS has undergone a major expansion with the addition of several new members.

The BRICS group of emerging economies has welcomed 2024 by officially adding five developing nations.

Specifically, the bloc introduced Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Iran, Egypt, and Ethiopia to kick off the new year.

Last year, the BRICS economic alliance has flourished. In what was undoubtedly a year of growth, the bloc fast-tracked a host of initiatives. Those range from its de-dollarization plans to its first-ever expansion bid. The latter of which is finally set to be made official.

Indeed, the BRICS alliance has welcomed 2024 by officially adding five expansion nations to its ranks. Specifically, it introduced Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iran, Egypt, and Ethiopia to be the first countries to constitute expansion since South Africa was added more than a decade ago.

The expansion is set to have massive geopolitical ramifications, as they could be hugely important to its multipolar goals.

MP/