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Russia ratifies agreement on BRICS Development Bank

Xinhua, February 25, 2015 Adjust font size:

Russian parliament's upper house, the Federation Council, ratified Wednesday a multilateral intergovernmental agreement on the founding of the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB).

The agreement was signed on July 15 during the 6th summit of the alliance comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

The bank's initial authorized capital will be 100 billion U.S. dollars with a 50-billion-U.S.-dollar initial subscribed capital equally shared among the five founding members.

"The bank will finance infrastructure projects and sustainable development projects in the BRICS countries as well as in emerging economies," Sergei Ivanov, a deputy head of the Federation Council's budgetary committee, was quoted as saying.

According to Ivanov, the agreement envisages that the Shanghai-based bank assets are immune from national legislation and cannot be searched, confiscated, expropriated or otherwise estranged. The bank's personnel will also enjoy immunity from any form of prosecution and taxation at the national level.

The NDB will stipulate a three-tier governance structure, namely the board of governors, the board of directors and the president, while Russian Financial Minister Anton Siluanov would be the first chairman of the board of governors.

On Tuesday, Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak said the NDB would start work by late 2015 and reach full-scale operation in four to five years with mature policies and operation procedures. Endi