Not here to compete with IMF, World Bank: NDB chief KV Kamath

NEW DELHI: Downplaying rivalry with western financial blocks, KV Kamath, the first chief of the $100-billion New Development Bank (NDB), said it was a signal that developing countries were coming of age and are trying to stand on their own feet. "There are no fears, NDB represents the expectations and aspirations of developing nations," he told ET Now.

"So far loans were made from the mindset of the lender but we are now going to look at it from the mindset of the borrower," Kamat told ET Now, explaining NDB's agenda.

The new bank, set up by India and four other members of the BRICS grouping, will strive to approve its 1st loan before end of the current fiscal.

Kamath said NDB will change the way multilateral banks operate, but pointed out that he regards other international financial institutions such as IMF, World Bank and Asian Development Bank as "partners, not rivals".

Kamath denied the NDB was being propped by Russia or China, saying it was a work in progress and all member nations had equal say in the functioning of the bank.

On whether NDB will bring in new members, Kamath said the immediate focus for the Bank is to write its rules and complete other procedures and any decision on expanding the membership would be taken by its Board in due course.

The bank, which will have its headquarters in Shanghai, held its Board of Governors meeting in Moscow on Tuesday and completed its ratification process, a day before the seventh BRICS Summit began. The Summit is being attended by heads of states of all the five BRICS nations, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On the China-backed AIIB, Kamath said there is enough pie in the region for both banks to operate and ruled out any competition. He also denied any impact of Greece on India. "Not too much of an impact will be seen here, only if somebody has a Greek debt in his paper...overall, there is nothing."

On his immediate focus areas as the first NDB President, Kamath said, "Innovation is something that we will try to bring about in the working of the multilateral banks.

He said: "One of the areas that we will focus is that lenders want the borrowers to follow a certain timeline. We need to see what innovation is required to ensure that this timeline is met or to try and reduce this timeline.