Even after the festive days of the FIFA World Cup were over, Fortaleza, a city in Brazil, hosted the sixth summit of the BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — in mid-July and decided to build a $100 billion BRICS-led development bank.
The idea had already surfaced in the declaration of the previous summit. At the Fortaleza summit, more concrete details were officially determined. Regardless of the different intentions and expectations of these countries, the creation of this development bank will, without doubt, force a considerable shift in the power balance and governance of the global economy.
As is well known, the present institutions of international finance — the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank — go back to 1944, when international meetings were held in Breton Woods, New Hampshire, for constructing the postwar world order.