BRICS Moves Forward on Payment System

Nov. 30—BRICS sherpas met at Yekaterinburg, Russia Nov. 28 and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, quoted by TASS, told journalists that the drive towards an independent payment system that bypasses the Western SWIFT system is irreversible. “The glass is always half-full; it is never half-empty,” Ryabkov said. “We can measure how full the glass is in different ways but this ultimately depends on who is holding this glass in their hands. Therefore, we’ve made significant strides today. How much time it will take to fill … the framework we’ve established with tangible actions depends on us—on BRICS and on the global majority...A critical milestone—a point of no return—has been passed, and how quickly things develop going forward depends on how leaders articulate this and how effectively financial experts, bankers and diplomats whose job this is tackle the challenge. We will do everything in our power to ensure success.”

Alarm bells are sounding in the City of London over the BRICS move. In a debate in the House of Lords, Financial Secretary to the Treasury Lord Livermore answered a question by former Treasury Minister Lord Lamont yesterday, on whether the new BRICS payment system “would be a major threat to the Western-led financial system” and its ability to impose sanctions, saying he agreed to “take these developments seriously.” On the potential to undermine sanctions, Livermore said that the U.K. government “will pursue any necessary steps with our allies to maintain the interconnected system and reduce opportunities for the circumvention or evasion of international sanctions.”