BRICS bank rattles the 'Washington Consensus'

Coutinho is the longtime president of Brazil's uber-powerful national
development bank, the BNDES, and he was part of the Brazilian
negotiating delegation for the new bank.

He called the new institution a "historic initiative and a breakthrough".

“It's
coming in a moment in which there is scarcity in long-term credit for
infrastructure and development not just for the BRICS but for all
developing economies," Coutinho told Al Jazeera.

He estimates
there is an immediate need for between $600bn and $700bn in new
investment in infrastructure in developing countries.

Coutinho,
and other officials at the meeting, downplayed the idea the creation of
the bank was strictly an anti-World Bank and IMF move.

"The new
development bank is an alternative," he said. "There is room for
existing multilateral banks to increase their balance sheets and lend
more. And the new bank is doing that. But the new bank is going to do so
in a different channel."

There's little doubt the BRICS countries
want deep reforms at the World Bank and IMF. Washington has dragged its
feet and stalled. That might now change.

"The new bank puts
pressure on the World Bank and IMF to reform, or else the new bank could
become more dominant in BRICS countries," Kirill Dmitriev, the chief
executive officer of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, told Al
Jazeera.



BRICS bank rattles the 'Washington Consensus' - Al Jazeera Blogs