BRICS institutions were envisioned as instruments of de-dollarization. Discuss the structural constraints that limit this goal.

De-dollarization refers to reducing the US dollar's role in trade invoicing, lending and reserves. BRICS built the New Development Bank (NDB) and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) as counterweights to the Bretton Woods order, yet a decade on the dollar's centrality within these very institutions remains largely intact.

Capital-market dependence of BRICS institutions

• The NDB must raise resources in deep, liquid markets to preserve its credit rating and borrowing costs; the dollar market alone offers that depth, so a large share of its bond issuance remains dollar-denominated.
• Its own strategy concedes the gap: local-currency financing was targeted at only 30% of total lending for 2022–26 [1], an admission that non-dollar funding is the exception, not the norm.

Shallow and non-convertible member currencies

• Most BRICS currencies lack full capital-account convertibility, hedging instruments and offshore settlement depth, so exporters still price in dollars — roughly 90% of Brazil's export invoicing is dollar-denominated despite China being its largest trade partner [2].
• The result is dollar-pegged habit persistence that institutional design cannot override.

Risk of yuan substitution, not multipolarity

• Where non-dollar issuance occurs, it gravitates to the yuan (NDB is a major Panda bond issuer), and the NDB is headquartered in Shanghai. Replacing dollar dependence with dependence on one member's currency deepens asymmetry rather than dissolving it [2].

Divergent member interests and payments plumbing

• The expanded ten-member grouping spans surplus and deficit, sanctioned and sanction-averse economies, limiting consensus on a common unit.
• Cross-border settlement still runs on dollar-clearing and SWIFT-linked rails; alternatives like CBDCs and UPI internationalization are nascent.

De-dollarization is therefore constrained less by intent than by economic structure — convertibility, market depth and trust take decades to build. The realistic path, visible in India's 2026 Chairship agenda at the 18th BRICS Summit, New Delhi [3], is incremental: wider local-currency settlement, interoperable digital payments and credible NDB lending, moving toward genuine multipolarity rather than a single-currency substitute.