New Development Bank of BRICS appoints ICICI Chief K V Kamath

New Delhi: Eminent banker K V Kamath was On May 11, appointed as head of the USD 50 billion New Development Bank being set up by the five emerging economies of BRICS grouping. Kamath will have a five year term of the bank, which is likely to be operationalised within one year, said Finance Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi.

Kamath is the Chairman of the India's largest private sector bank ICICI. Leaders of the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) had last year reached an agreement to establish the New Development Bank, with its headquarters in Shanghai. As per the agreement, India got the right to nominate the first president. Kamath has been named the first president of the NDB, said Mehrishi. The BRICS nations account for nearly USD 16 trillion in GDP and 40 per cent of the world's population. The bank will start with an initial paid-in-capital of USD 50 billion with each BRICS country contributing USD 10 billion.

After serving at ICICI for more than a decade, Kamath had moved to Asian Development Bank, Manila, in the Private Sector department in 1988. His principal work experience at ADB was in various projects in China, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh and other emerging nations. The decision to set up this multilateral funding agency was taken in Fortaleza, Brazil at the BRICS Summit which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The idea of the BRICS development bank was conceived in Delhi in 2012 and approved in Durban in 2013.

Making a strong pitch for speeding up the creation of the BRICS development bank, Modi had said last year that India hopes to ratify the agreement over the financial institution by 2014-end, and 2016 should be set as the target for its inauguration. Modi had made this remark at an informal meeting withBrazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and South African President President Jacob Zuma on the sidelines of the G20 summit at Brisbane (Australia) in November.

India's presidency will be followed by Brazil and Russia who will have five years term each under an agreement reached after intense negotiations among the five country-grouping.