BRICS Watch: Russian Finance Minister Highlights Digital Assets' Role for Bloc's Future

Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov specified that digital financial assets were among the options that BRICS was considering for securing independence from third-party nations in the economic trade arena.

BRICS Profiles Digital Financial Assets as Part of Future’s Financial Settlements Arsenal

Digital assets have become a relevant actor in international trade, and now even BRICS, the bloc helmed by countries like Russia, India, and China, have started eyeing them to be part of their financial structure.

Russian Minister Anton Siluanov referred to the possible role that digital financial assets would play in the upcoming trade reality of the BRICS bloc and, by extension, in the world’s trade finance operations.

Quoted by TASS, the official Russian news outlet, Siluanov said digital financial assets were part of the arsenal that would fuel BRICS trade. He stated:

We are considering our various financial innovations on the BRICS floor, including the cross-border payment system that can be based, further to bilateral settlements, on national currencies with consideration of digital technologies and digital financial assets.

Siluanov remarked on the relevance of creating innovative payment structures for the future of BRICS trade. “The buildup of the financial infrastructure is very important for the development of trade and economies of our countries,” he assessed.

Digital financial assets (DFA) broadly include cryptocurrencies and other assets, including tokenized gold or other metals with a distinct issuer.

Russia has been preparing to use DFA in international trade since last year, when President Vladimir Putin signed a law that allowed their use for international payments. Nonetheless, leveraging them for domestic payments is still forbidden.

Siluanov himself described the inner workings of the upcoming BRICS payment system during last year’s BRICS summit at Kazan. “This system is planned on new formats, and approaches, taking into account the use of digital financial assets. This is a new system design,” he noted back in October.

In March, Chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on the Financial Market Anatoly Aksakov also referred to the possibilities DFA would bring to the country’s trade settlements: “It’s quite possible that this will be a serious channel to replace fiat currencies in international transactions,” he concluded.