Iran called on the BRICS bloc to move from discussions to the practical creation of its own financial infrastructure. This was stated by the head of the Central Bank of Iran, Abdolnasser Hemmati, during the first meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors of BRICS, which took place in Jaipur in August.
Hemmati's main idea was the necessity of creating a specialized financial corridor for BRICS that would unite the payment systems of member countries. He argued that real infrastructure, such as banks and traders, could ensure secure, low-cost, and externally independent cross-border money transfers.
Hemmati elaborated on his argument: if BRICS countries integrate their national payment systems and rely more on their own currencies in trade, it will accelerate transactions, reduce costs, and increase the resilience of the entire system to disruptions. For Iran, which has been under US sanctions for years and excluded from the SWIFT network, this is considered a vital strategy.
Furthermore, Hemmati reported that Iran has already begun preparatory work, studying the legal and technical aspects of connecting payment systems within the bloc, and offered assistance in developing a roadmap instead of waiting for other parties to create one.
Iran joined the BRICS PAY electronic banking platform in 2023, and parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Kalibaf openly named this platform as a way to bypass SWIFT restrictions. After officially joining BRICS in 2024 along with Egypt, Ethiopia, and the UAE, the Central Bank of Iran retains a seat in the working groups on cross-border payments, national currencies, fintech, and cybersecurity.
At the Jaipur meeting, Hemmati also used the opportunity to promote a second long-standing goal: securing Iran's inclusion in the New Development Bank managed by BRICS, which was established in 2015 by Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa to finance development and infrastructure projects. Hemmati told reporters that Iran's entry into the bank is close, calling it 'the most important outcome' of BRICS cooperation so far, although the bank itself has not confirmed timelines.
He also mentioned that Tehran is negotiating bilateral and trilateral currency agreements with other members, in addition to the idea of a multilateral corridor. These statements were made against the backdrop of recent military actions by the US and Israel against Iran, and Hemmati emphasized that financial stability is impossible without peace and adherence to international law.
The Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Sanjay Malhotra, noted that BRICS countries are exploring ways to connect their domestic instant payment systems and are discussing the potential integration of central bank digital currencies into one network, although officials stressed that this is still at the research stage, not implementation.
In essence, Iran presented a concrete proposal and is ready to undertake the technical work. Other BRICS members support this idea and are conducting parallel discussions. However, no one has yet approved a real system, and creating a common payment infrastructure between countries with different banking regulations, currencies, and political systems is a slow and complex process. Nevertheless, the direction is clear: Iran has made 'de-dollarization of BRICS trade' one of the main goals of its foreign economic policy, and after the Jaipur meeting, the bloc has gained a starting point for discussing the abandonment of the dollar.