BRICS Bank HQ in Shanghai, India gets first presidency

The new development bank's Africa regional centre will be established in South Africa and currently with the headquarters."We direct our Finance Ministers to work out the modalities for its operationalisation," the leaders said in the Fortaleza Declaration adopted at the Summit. Based on sound banking principles, the Declaration said the bank will strengthen cooperation among BRICS countries and will supplement the efforts of multilateral and regional financial institutions for global development, thus"contributing to our collective commitments for achieving thegoal of strong, sustainable and balanced growth". It said the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) with an initial size of US$ 100 billion will have a positiveprecautionary effect, help countries forestall short-term liquidity pressures, promote further BRICS cooperation,strengthen the global financial safety net and complement existing international arrangements. The agreement is a framework for the provision of liquidity through currency swaps in response to actual orpotential short-term balance of payments pressures, accordingto the Declaration.