Will you be able to buy BRICS dollars? 

So the short answer is no, unfortunately, no. I know a lot of you are disappointed, but I have to explain what this new BRICS currency is. And first, let me explain what it is not. 

So the new BRICS currency is not intended to replace the currencies of the five member countries. So we’re talking about Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

They will continue to maintain their individual currencies while having this BRICS currency serve as a currency of international trade and global reserve. So it is not like the Euro, for example, which members of the European Union, excluding Britain, adopted in 1999. So when the European Union came up with the idea of the Euro and finally adopted it in 1999, those member countries had to give up their individual currencies and instead adopt the Euro and then use that for trade, both locally and in the European Union within the region.

That is not what is being contemplated here with the new BRICS currency. These five countries still intend to keep their local currencies, which would be used for local trade. But, they will also have this global reserve currency, the new BRICS dollars, that would operate in tandem with it to be used only for the purpose of international trade. 

Now, the only comparative thing I can think about is something called SDR. It stands for Special Drawing Rights. And this is a special currency created by the IMF, the International Monetary Fund. And it is basically the weighted average of the currencies of all the member countries of the IMF. And that goes into forming what they call SDR. And this money is used only for trade amongst the IMF when it’s dispersing money to member countries. So it has a very specific purpose. 

You can’t go to the bank right now and say that you want to trade your Jamaican dollars for SDR. And that’s going to be the same thing with BRICS, at least not in the initial phases and not how it’s being contemplated right now.

You wouldn’t be able to go to the bank and say, I want to change my US dollars for BRICS money, or I want to change my Jamaican dollars for BRICS money.

That is not how it is going to work.