New BRICS bank opens for business in China: Xinhua

A new bank dedicated to the emerging BRICS countries opened for business in China’s commercial hub of Shanghai on Tuesday, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

 

The so-called emerging BRICS countries are made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, and their “New Development Bank” has been seen as a challenge to the Washington-based International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

 

The institution’s management was “working on initiation of operations,” Xinhua quoted bank president K. V. Kamath, formerly a private banker in India, as saying, including “making business policy” and “developing project preparations.”

 

Operations would begin late this year or early in 2016, he added.

 

The opening — announced in a short report — comes two weeks after a BRICS summit hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

 

Moscow, which has suffered huge currency fluctuations and struggled to attract investors since the outbreak of the crisis in Ukraine, sees the bank and a BRICS currency reserve pool as an alternative to international financial institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank, which are dominated by the US.

 

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