Swift Alternative will Speak Hindi

India is exploring the possibility of creating its own interbank telecommunications system that would partially replace the international scheme Swift, but only for international payment transactions in rupees and some other national currencies. As the Indian economic and financial newspaper The Economic Times wrote, “the introduction of its own scheme of interbank telecommunications will increase the role and weight of the Indian rupee in the global financial structure.” According to ET’s “reliable” sources, “the New Delhi government has already created an expert committee to present by autumn the results of the study to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.” The government committee will be joined by the representatives of the Indian banking community – from the state-owned Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to private creditor Bank of Baroda. According to RBI representatives, “the new interbank scheme could be based on existing and widespread Indian telecommunications systems such as UPI and RuPay.”

In recent years, India has regularly raised the issue of mutual settlements in rupees and other national currencies in bilateral trade with the countries of BRICS, the Middle East, and Africa. On July 15, Central Bank Governors – Shaktikanta Das of India and Khaled Mohamed Balama of the United Arab Emirates – signed a memorandum of understanding to accelerate the transition to rupee and dirham settlements in bilateral trade, as well as in some other cross-border financial transactions. In the oil trade with India, Russia also agreed to receive payments in rupees in 2023. New Delhi, however, resisted the idea of creating an internal currency of the BRICS group of countries that is being promoted by Russia, Brazil, and China.