brics bank: Brics-promoted bank keen to add members

Gandhinagar: The Brics-promoted New Development Bank (NDB) has started membership expansion to make the bank a global institution, said Leslie Maasdorp, the bank’s vice president and chief financial officer, adding that the institution has been able to successfully navigate geopolitical issues.

The New Development Bank is also exploring fundraising in the Indian rupee and is expected to hold discussions next month and is in touch with the regulators.

In an interview with ET, he said the NDB has clear focus areas-membership expansion, deepening sustainability credentials, local currency operations, and increasing focus on private sector operations. Massdorp is in Gandhinagar to attend the G-20 summit.

The UAE, Bangladesh, and Egypt have joined while Uruguay is in the final stages of membership and Saudi Arabia has expressed interest, he told ET in an interview.

“So we are now going through a rapid growth phase in terms of membership expansion,” as the “original idea of the founders was to create a new institution that would be an additional voice in the global financial architecture because it is evident that the developed world G-7 countries are the biggest players and controlling powers,” he said.

While the emerging markets have grown over the last 30-40 years and have become much bigger economic actors, their voice has not risen proportionately in these institutions, he said.”We want to be part of every conversation, whether it’s about climate change, whether it’s about how to deal with the biggest global challenges that we face today. We have to be a central part of that conversation,” he said justifying the case for an emerging markets-owned and controlled institution like the NDB.Membership expansion will also bring more capital and make it a bigger global institution.

He said the NDB is “not a political institution” and was created by Brics that have their own global ambition, replying to a question if it faced geopolitical issues.