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Bank to be announced at St Petersburg- FM
April 19, 2013, 8:30 am

[BRICS5]

The Bank was announced earlier in March this year at the BRICS Summit in Durban [BRICS5]

Finance ministers of the BRICS countries are gearing up to work out the structural details of the BRICS Bank announced earlier in March this year at the Summit in Durban.

Finance ministry delegations would work out main principles on the establishment of a development bank by the fall of this year, said Russian deputy finance minister Sergei Storchak.

The BRICS Development Bank was first proposed by India at the 2012 Summit in response to criticism from developing nations that existing multilateral lenders – such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund – are too dominated by Western governments.

“We have reached an agreement that each country will form its delegation, which will have its own leader and powers, and then to start full-scale negotiations concerning all aspects on the bank’s establishment,” Storchak said.

The official added that the main principles on the bank’s establishment would be ready by the summit of G20 leaders, which is scheduled to be held this September in Russia’s second largest city of St. Petersburg.

In an exclusive interview to The BRICS Post, Georgy Toloraya, executive director, BRICS National Research Committee, Russia had said: “I cannot say that the BRICS Bank, when created, will be an alternative, but it will be a competitor to the West.”

Dismissing rumours about possible stakes to the US or EU, Toloraya said: “I don’t think that at least initially the US or other countries outside BRICS will hold any shares in the BRICS Development Bank.”

South African finance minister Pravin Gordhan said in Washington on Wednesday that the structural details about the BRICS-led Development Bank will emerge later this year.

The World Bank in March welcomed the BRICS Bank and said it would be an “invaluable partner.”

The BRICS Post with inputs from Ria Novosti