This year, India is the Chair of BRICS+ and hosts the group’s meeting later in 2026. According to a Reuters report, the Reserve Bank of India is proposing that BRICS+ members link their central bank digital currencies to make “cross border trade and tourism payments easier”. This is not a new proposal.
When Russia chaired the group in 2024, the topic of BRICS Bridge was raised. The idea involves a platform where wholesale CBDC can be exchanged, enabling banks to make local currency payments outside of Swift that do not use the US dollar. Such a system already exists: mBridge, which mainly involves BRICS+ members. The participants are China, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and the UAE. Given that Hong Kong is technically part of China, Thailand is the only BRICS+ non-member, though it is a BRICS+ partner and therefore participates in many meetings. In May 2025, reports indicated that Saudi Arabia had not yet formally joined BRICS+, although it attended BRICS meetings in Brazil in 2025.
When the topic of BRICS Bridge was raised in 2024, this implied the involvement of Russia and Iran, which are both full BRICS+ members and subject to sanctions. The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the original coordinator of mBridge, cannot support the participation of sanctioned countries. Hence, in late 2024 the BIS withdrew from the project saying that mBridge had graduated from its Innovation Hub.
Despite the BIS withdrawal, mBridge has continued to process significant volumes. While mBridge is technically still a minimum viable product (MVP), payment volumes have reached RMB 387.2 billion ($55 billion), as reported in the Pro edition of Ledger Insights two weeks ago. With 95% of payments using the digital yuan, many would argue this indicates China’s dominance. However, until recently China was the only participant country to have a functioning wholesale CBDC.
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