Alexey Kazartsev: Unified BRICS Payment Standard to Eliminate Dependence on Western Protocols
Alexey Kazartsev, Chairman of the International Banking Committee of the Financial and Business Association of Euro-Asian Cooperation (FBA EAC), participated on July 1, 2026, in filming a segment for the international TV channel TV BRICS, dedicated to the agenda of the BRICS Business Expert Council. The key topic was the creation of a unified standard for all types of transactions between economic agents of the member countries.
In his statement, Kazartsev, who is a co-author of the new international payment system BRICS Pay project and has been a member of the BRICS Business Council's Financial Services Group since 2015, emphasized the critical vulnerability of current national payment solutions.
"The architectural weakness of current national payment solutions, including the NSPK Mir system, remains the critical dependence on the corporate EMV standard, which is a private corporate protocol owned by Eurocard/Mastercard/Visa Corporation. The corporation's name directly indicates the ultimate beneficiaries, making the standard an instrument of commercial and political control rather than a neutral technological platform," the expert emphasized.
According to him, using EMV for chip and contactless Mir cards creates a systemic vulnerability: certification under this standard leaves the standard owners with technical and legal levers to remotely restrict the operation of cards, POS terminals, and ATMs anywhere in the world. This is particularly relevant given the decline in contact payment share (less than 1.5%) and the growth of contactless transactions in the Mir system.
As an alternative, Kazartsev pointed to China's experience: "The experience of the PRC clearly demonstrates that the transition to mobile QR-code systems (Alipay, WeChat Pay) is not only economically viable and convenient for consumers but also completely eliminates dependence on Western card protocols. This circumstance, along with commercial preferability, determines that the BRICS Pay project is being implemented precisely as a QR-code payment system."
Speaking about the current state of the BRICS Pay project, the expert noted that the system represents a decentralized multi-currency international payment system that will connect existing national payment channels. However, in his assessment, despite technical readiness, the project has encountered institutional resistance: "Despite technical readiness, the project has encountered institutional resistance, which amounted to implementing the scheme as a 'commercial enterprise without state participation,' which effectively froze development. The modern BRICS Pay model implies abandoning centralized Western gateways in favor of decentralized architecture. Practical implementation relies on proven schemes adapted to current realities, with phased scaling. As a first step, an intergovernmental agreement on the creation of an international payment system must be concluded. The second step should be building payment interfaces and inter-host connections between national payment corporations of BRICS countries."
Alexey Kazartsev holds a PhD in Engineering, is a graduate of LITMO (Saint Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics), and has many years of experience in the banking sector and implementing projects to create processing centers.
The BRICS Payment Initiative (BCBPI) and the concept of a cross-border payment platform were included in the 2024 Kazan Declaration and continue to be discussed at the working group level of the BRICS Business Council.