The New Development Bank , better known as the BRICS Development Bank, has announced plans to begin lending in South African and Brazilian currencies in order to reduce reliance on the US dollar.Dilma Rousseff, the bank’s president, spoke in a recentShe also said the Shanghai-based lender was considering applications for membership from about 15 countries and was likely to approve the admission of four or five.
Rousseff said lending in local currency would allow borrowers in member countries to avoid exchange rate risk and variations in US interest rates.“They’re alternatives to a system. So far the system has been unipolar . . . it’s going to be substituted by a more multipolar system.”She said the bank has also tried to distinguish itself from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund by not setting lists of political conditions on loans.