BRICS bank has strong pipeline for next two years: Bank president

SHANGHAI — The BRICS New Development Bank has seen good results in the last two years and has a strong pipeline for the future, bank president K V Kamath said Thursday.

"The last two years have been very satisfying to us. It has built a strong foundation for the bank," Kamath said.

The bank has 23 projects at various stages of preparation for 2017 to 2018, with a total lending amount of $6 billion.

Among them, five projects, totaling $1.7 billion, are in China. The remainder are made up of six projects in India, seven in Brazil, two in Russia, and three in South Africa.

In 2016, the bank granted $1.5 billion in loans to seven projects. Most projects involved green energy or infrastructure, Kamath said.

The bank sold its first 3 billion yuan ($437 million) yuan-denominated bonds in China in July last year, to fund clean energy projects in member states.

It plans to issue rupee-denominated bonds this year and will also look for opportunities to issue bonds in Brazil and Russia, Kamath said.

The bank formally opened on July 21, 2015 in Shanghai.