BRICS finance chiefs call for greater say for emerging economies in IMF, World Bank
BRICS finance ministers and central bank governors, meeting during India's 2026 BRICS chairship, issued a joint statement calling for urgent reform to make the IMF and World Bank more agile, credible, and representative of emerging and developing economies.
The statement demanded higher IMF quota and voting shares for emerging economies, along with greater leadership representation in both institutions.
The bloc raised concerns over unilateral tariffs and protectionist trade measures, describing them as inconsistent with WTO rules and disproportionately damaging to developing economies.
Officials backed wider use of local currencies for cross-border trade and investment, and called for faster, cheaper cross-border payment mechanisms among member economies.
IMF Quota System and the 16th General Review of Quotas
IMF quotas determine a member country's voting power, financial subscription, and access to Fund resources. Quotas are set by a formula combining GDP, economic openness, variability, and reserves, and are reviewed periodically under the IMF's Articles of Agreement.
Key Details
- India's quota is SDR 13,114.4 million, a share of about 2.75% of total IMF quotas, making it the 8th largest quota-holder; India's voting share is around 2.63%.
- The IMF Board of Governors concluded the 16th General Review of Quotas on 15 December 2023, approving a 50% across-the-board quota increase (SDR 238.6 billion, roughly $320 billion) — but this was an equiproportional increase with no realignment of individual members' shares.
- Because the 16th review did not rebalance shares, emerging economies' voting power did not rise despite their growing share of world GDP — the exact grievance behind the BRICS demand for reform.
- A future (17th) General Review is expected to take up a "new quota formula" for redistributing shares, which is the live reform BRICS is pushing for.
The BRICS call for a greater IMF voice is a direct response to the 16th Review having raised total IMF resources without shifting relative voting power toward emerging economies — reform BRICS wants addressed in the next quota review cycle.
New Development Bank (NDB) and Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA)
Frustrated by slow reform at the Bretton Woods institutions, BRICS built its own parallel financial architecture: the NDB (a World Bank-type development lender) and the CRA (an IMF-type balance-of-payments safety net).
The NDB and CRA are the concrete "exit option" BRICS built after years of stalled voice reform at the IMF and World Bank — the same institutions the bloc is now again asking to reform rather than bypass.
WTO Rules, MFN Principle, and Unilateral Tariffs
The World Trade Organization (WTO), established in 1995 as successor to GATT (1947), enshrines the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) principle under GATT Article I, requiring members to extend equal tariff treatment to all trading partners absent a free trade agreement.
Key Details
- Unilaterally imposed tariffs outside WTO-sanctioned safeguard or anti-dumping procedures generally breach a member's "bound tariff" commitments under GATT Article II.
- The WTO's Appellate Body — the top tier of its dispute settlement system — has been non-functional since 2019 due to blocked judicial appointments, weakening enforcement against unilateral tariff measures.
- This enforcement gap is the structural reason aggrieved WTO members currently have limited formal recourse against unilateral tariffs.
BRICS' criticism of "unilateral tariffs and protectionism" reflects this weakened WTO dispute-settlement capacity, leaving affected developing economies with fewer multilateral remedies.
De-dollarization and Local-Currency Trade Settlement
BRICS has explored mechanisms to reduce dependence on the US dollar for trade and reserves, ranging from bilateral local-currency arrangements to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
Key Details
- India operates a Special Rupee Vostro Account mechanism (introduced by the RBI in July 2022) to settle trade in rupees, and has piloted its own CBDC, the e-Rupee, since November-December 2022.
- A BRICS cross-border payments initiative ("BRICS Bridge/BRICS Pay") was discussed at the 2024 Kazan Summit as an interoperable payment-messaging platform, but the bloc has not adopted a common currency.
- India has consistently supported broader local-currency and CBDC-based settlement while resisting proposals for a single BRICS currency, favouring interoperability of national systems instead.
The statement's emphasis on cheaper cross-border payments in local currencies — rather than a unified payment network — matches India's cautious, interoperability-first stance on de-dollarization within BRICS.
- India's IMF quota share: ~2.75% (SDR 13,114.4 million); 8th largest quota-holder.
- 16th General Review of Quotas concluded 15 December 2023: 50% quota increase (~$320 billion), no realignment of voting shares.
- NDB: founded 2014 (Fortaleza Summit), operational since 2015, headquartered in Shanghai.
- CRA: $100 billion total pool (China $41bn, Brazil/Russia/India $18bn each, South Africa $5bn), treaty signed 2014.
- BRICS finance chiefs' statement issued: 11 September 2026, during India's BRICS chairship year.