section_path: Financial architecture/Potential common currency and BRICS Bridge
section_name: Potential common currency and BRICS Bridge
paragraph_text: Potential common currency and BRICS Bridge
  
  BRICS countries committed to study the feasibility of a new common currency or similar, at the 2023 BRICS summit in South Africa. Fair and easier international trade, as well as a major reduction in costs of transactions, would be some of the reasons for the countries to forge a currency union.
  
  BRICS Bridge —a successor to MBridge, and probably a merger with BRICS PAY —makes it possible for central banks to support cross-border transactions and payments with their own central bank digital currency (CBDC) based on an automatic Cross-Border Interbank Payment System for settlement and clearance. It is designed to be independent of any single nation or central bank, and every central bank can opt out and has control of their CBDC exchange rate.
  
  One alternative for the currency name has been labelled as "R5" (from the five currencies renminbi, ruble, rupee, real, and rand), or with other multilateral. A symbolic banknote was unveiled during the 16th summit in Kazan, Russia.