$100b BRICS bank opens

SHANGHAI, July 21 (Agencies): A new $100 billion international bank dedicated to the emerging BRICS countries opened in China's commercial hub  Shanghai on Tuesday, officials said, as an alternative to other multilateral lenders.
The New Development Bank (NDB), backed by the so-called emerging BRICS nations -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- has been viewed as a challenge to Washington-based institutions.
The NDB's website explicitly describes it as an "alternative to the existing US-dominated World Bank and International Monetary Fund" which will address needs for infrastructure and sustainable development.
It comes as Beijing-which is seeking a greater role on the global political stage to mirror its rise to become the world's second-largest economy-is also setting up a separate
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
Chinese finance minister Lou Jiwei played down the competitive aspect.
"The NDB will supplement the existing international financial system in a healthy way and explore innovations in governance models," he told the NDB's opening ceremony in Shanghai, as quoted by the official Xinhua news agency.
The bank says on its website that it will have authorised capital of $100 billion, with $50 billion paid in initially.
The ceremony on Tuesday concludes a lengthy wait since the NDB was first proposed in 2012. Disagreements over the bank's funding, management and headquarters had slowed its launch.  "Our objective is not to challenge the existing system as it is but to improve and complement the system in our own way," NDB President Kundapur Vaman Kamath said.
He added that after a meeting with the AIIB in Beijing, the NDB had decided to set up a "hotline" with the AIIB to discuss issues, and to forge closer ties between "new institutions coming together with a completely different approach." The bank is considering raising funds by issuing a "substantial" amount of bonds in member markets to help mitigate costs arising from exchange rate fluctuations, he said.  Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said the NDB's support of infrastructure projects will help "ease long-running bottlenecks faced by emerging and developing countries, and help them speed up, adjust and upgrade economic development."
The ceremony, held in Shanghai where the NDB's headquarters are located, was relatively low-key in comparison to a June signing of the articles of agreement for the AIIB in Beijing, which was attended by delegates from 57 countries and President Xi Jinping.