BRICS members discuss Iran’s initiative to integrate payment systems

Member states of the BRICS group of nations are currently considering Iran's proposal to integrate their national payment systems. This discussion was confirmed by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko in a recent interview with TASS, News.Az reports.

"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.

Rudenko underscored that "creating clearance and payment infrastructure that would be independent and resilient to the pressure of sanctions" would be an important step in strengthening 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," the high-ranking Russian diplomat added.

On July 4, Governor of the Central Bank of Iran Mohammadreza Farzin held negotiations with Governor of the Bank of Russia Elvira Nabiullina in St. Petersburg. On July 6, he said that at the meeting the parties noted the completion of work on integrating the Russian payment system Mir and the Iranian payment system Shetab and also signed an agreement on providing liquidity to national currencies for commercial transactions.

News.Az