What is BRICS Pay, and can it rival the West’s SWIFT payments system?

The central theme of the BRICS bloc of nations is to push back against the global economic dominance of Western countries. That core value was very much at the centre of this year’s 18th BRICS Summit, which took place last week in India.At the September 12 and 13 summit in New Delhi, leaders committed to expanding local currency trading systems and cross-border payment systems by investing in BRICS Pay, an initiative of the BRICS Business Council.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3BRICS summit: What are the key takeaways?list 2 of 3World leaders gather in New Delhi for final day of BRICS summitlist 3 of 3Can China play peacemaker as Iran’s foreign minister heads to Beijing?end of list“We acknowledge the work done to study the cross-border interoperability of payment and messaging channels, and the discussions on promoting trade settlements and investments using BRICS local currencies, while respecting national priorities and acknowledging that there is no one-size-fits-all approach,” leaders said in a joint declaration as the summit concluded.They also encouraged the BRICS Payments Task Force (BPTF), a collaborative central bank expert platform focused on cross-border pa...