At its launch almost a decade ago, the BRICS nations’ New Development Bank (NDB) was celebrated as a chance for countries across the Global South to break free of the US-dominated IMF and World Bank and rewrite the rules of financing global development. But while the number of nations signed up to the NDB has almost doubled since its founding, critics say that the BRICS bank is making many of the same mistakes as the institutions it was supposed to replace.
In July 2014, the five BRICS countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – representing more than 3 billion people – announced the launch of a new bank that would finance desperately needed infrastructure projects across the developing world. Although it was immediately dubbed the “BRICS Bank” by supporters and detractors alike, its official name held a simple yet powerful promise: the New Development Bank (NDB).
