China-Brazil local currency cooperation is extending to payment and settlement.
On June 9, 2026, the fourth China-Brazil Financial Strategic Cooperation Working Group Meeting was held. Pan Gongsheng, Governor of the People’s Bank of China, and Gallipolo, Governor of the Central Bank of Brazil, co-chaired the meeting.
This meeting discussed local currency accounts, bilateral local currency swaps, RMB/real direct transactions, bond financing and local currency payment system cooperation under the same framework.
The meeting not only mentioned deepening local currency cooperation, promoting bilateral investment and financing, and accelerating cross-border payment cooperation, but also further discussed specific matters such as supporting companies from both countries to open local currency accounts, expanding the scope of bilateral local currency swaps, studying direct transactions in listed RMB/real, and strengthening bilateral local currency payment system cooperation.
China-Brazil financial cooperation has extended from policy communication to specific aspects of the use of local currencies and cross-border capital flows.
It is not just a matter of currency selection for trade settlement, but also involves multiple links such as local currency accounts, exchange rate formation, bond financing, and payment settlement.
At the end of 2024, the heads of state of China and Brazil met and agreed to establish a China-Brazil financial strategic cooperation working group.
The People’s Bank of China and the Central Bank of Brazil, as the leading units of the working group, have organized and held more than 20 rounds of meetings to comprehensively promote China-Brazil financial cooperation in various fields.
The fourth working group meeting fully affirmed the achievements of China-Brazil bilateral financial cooperation over the past year.
Among them, “local currency cooperation” and “cross-border payment cooperation” are the two keywords that the payment industry needs to pay most attention to.
Local currency cooperation must truly serve trade and investment and cannot just stop at the level of “which currency to use for settlement”.
Whether an enterprise is willing to use local currency also often depends on whether the account is convenient, whether the exchange rate quotation is clear, whether the fund settlement is smooth, whether the arrival and reconciliation are stable, and whether the relevant compliance processes can match real trade, investment and financing needs.
This meeting discussed supporting companies from both countries to open local currency accounts, which is solving the problem of access to local currencies.
Without a local currency account, even if a company is willing to settle in local currency, it will be difficult to form a stable payment arrangement.
The meeting discussed expanding the scope of bilateral local currency swaps, which is related to local currency liquidity arrangements.
Studying the direct transaction of listed RMB/real points to the exchange rate formation and conversion path.
If the direct trading mechanism between RMB and real is further improved, the exchange link of enterprises in China-Pakistan trade is expected to be more direct.
The meeting also mentioned that the Brazilian government is welcome to issue sovereign panda bonds in China and looks forward to more high-quality Brazilian companies issuing bonds in China; it supports the China-Brazil Bond Connect pilot business and promotes China-Brazil funds to actively explore investment opportunities in Brazil.
These contents show that China-Brazil local currency cooperation is not only centered around trade receipts and payments, but also extends to bond financing, investment arrangements and capital market connections.
For the payment industry, what is more critical is that the meeting proposed to explore strengthening bilateral cooperation in local currency payment systems to provide efficient and safe payment and clearing services for bilateral economic and trade exchanges.
China-Brazil local currency cooperation thus extends from accounts, swaps, exchange rates and financing arrangements to payment and clearing services.
For cross-border transactions, payment and settlement is not a terminal technical link, but an important support for the functioning of the local currency usage ecosystem.
Whether corporate receipts and payments are smooth, whether banks and payment service institutions can provide stable local currency clearing arrangements, and whether transaction information can meet anti-money laundering, foreign exchange management and cross-border fund monitoring requirements will all affect the actual use of local currency cooperation.
The economic and trade exchanges between China and Pakistan are large-scale and the business scenarios are also relatively diversified, covering many fields such as bulk commodities, agriculture, energy, manufacturing, cross-border e-commerce and corporate investment.
For these scenarios, cross-border payment services cannot only solve the problem of “where does the money come from”, but also need to handle a complete set of processes such as currency selection, exchange rate quotation, fund entry, transaction information, compliance review and subsequent reconciliation.
Brazil already has a relatively mature local payment system.
Payment methods such as Pix, local bank cards, Boleto, and digital wallets form a payment environment familiar to local businesses and consumers.
UnionPay International, Ant International, Lianlian International, XTransfer, PingPong, Airwallex and other institutions have entered the Brazilian market through different channels such as bank card acceptance, local card issuance, Pix access, local collection, corporate accounts and cross-border merchant services.
With the increase in personnel exchanges, trade investment and platform operations between China and Pakistan, payment needs will also extend from business travel consumption to more complex scenarios such as cross-border e-commerce, local collections, corporate payments, supplier settlement, exchange and fund management.
Therefore, the focus of China-Brazil local currency payment cooperation is not just to include RMB or real in settlement options, but to enable enterprises to more smoothly use local currencies to complete receipts, payments, financing and fund management in real business.
China-Brazil local currency payment cooperation can also be observed in the context of the central bank’s recent continuous signals on the construction of a cross-border payment system.
At the beginning of this year, the People’s Bank of China held the 2026 Payment and Settlement Work Conference.
The meeting proposed that the payment and settlement work in 2026 should promote the high-quality development of the modern payment system, accelerate the construction of the RMB cross-border payment system, promote cross-border payment interconnection, and promote the diversified and multi-level development of the cross-border payment system.
On May 3, Zhu Hexin, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China and director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, went to Uzbekistan to attend the ASEAN, China, Japan and South Korea Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting.
Before the meeting, Zhu Hexin attended the first ASEAN and China, Japan and South Korea central bank dialogue meeting and exchanged views with all parties on regional cross-border payment cooperation and other issues.
Looking together with China-Brazil local currency payment system cooperation, cross-border payments are appearing more in the agenda of regional cooperation, bilateral cooperation and payment system construction at the central bank level.
The payment and settlement working meeting at the beginning of the year proposed the construction of a RMB cross-border payment system and cross-border payment interconnection. Regional cross-border payment cooperation will emerge from the dialogue between ASEAN and the central banks of China, Japan and South Korea. The China-Brazil Financial Strategic Cooperation Working Group has included cross-border payment cooperation in the bilateral local currency cooperation framework.
Behind the different scenarios, they all point to the diversification of the cross-border payment system, the facilitation of the use of local currencies, and the improvement of payment and clearing service capabilities.
Judging from these public statements, cross-border payments are moving from specific business scenarios to higher-level regional financial cooperation and bilateral financial cooperation arrangements.
It is no longer just a business arrangement between banks, payment institutions and enterprises, but has increasingly become an important part of the facilitation of the use of local currencies, regional payment interconnection and financial services for the real economy.
For banks and cross-border payment service providers, this change will bring new capability requirements.
In the past, cross-border payment services emphasized more on remittance, collection, currency exchange and settlement efficiency.
As local currency accounts, direct transactions, and local currency payment system cooperation are included in the bilateral financial cooperation framework, when institutions serve enterprises, the focus of competition will also extend from channels and exchange rate quotations to local currency clearing, account services, transaction information processing, and compliance review capabilities.
Of course, the current meeting description still uses terms such as “discuss”, “research” and “support”.
Payment system cooperation involves regulatory rules, account systems, clearing standards, message information, anti-money laundering compliance, exchange rate risks and commercial institution participation mechanisms. It also needs to be gradually connected at the rules, systems, institutions and business levels.
The highlight of China-Brazil local currency cooperation is not only whether the RMB and the real can be used more directly, but also whether accounts, exchange rates, financing and payment and settlement can form a smoother connection.
For the cross-border payment industry, what really needs attention is how local currency payment and clearing services can move from policy consensus to actual links available to enterprises.
