BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement

The BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) is a framework for the provision of support through liquidity and precautionary instruments in response to actual or potential short-term balance of payments pressures.[1] It was established in 2015 by the BRICS countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The legal basis is formed by the Treaty for the Establishment of a BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement, signed at Fortaleza, Brazil on 15 July 2014. It entered into force upon ratification by all BRICS states, announced at the 7th BRICS summit in July 2015.

The objective of this reserve is to provide protection against global liquidity pressures.[2][3][4] This includes currency issues where members' national currencies are being adversely affected by global financial pressures.[2][4] The CRA is generally seen as a competitor to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and along with the New Development Bank is viewed as an example of increasing South-South cooperation.[2]

The CRA's "liquidity instrument" is the central bank liquidity swap. When a borrowing country ("Requesting Party") requests to draw funds, the central banks of the other countries ("Providing Parties") agree to sell and repurchase USD with the borrowing country's central bank. Both the spot and forward legs of the swap are executed at the spot rate, however the borrowing country must pay a predetermined interest rate in USD to the lending countries.[1]

The capital of $100 billion is distributed as follows:[5] The maximum access states can request from the Arrangement is half (China) to twice (South Africa) the amount of capital contributed.

Country Capital contribution[5]
(billion USD)		 Access to Funds
(billion USD)		 Voting Rights (%)[6]
 Brazil 18 18 18.10
 China 41 21 39.95
 India 18 18 18.10
 Russia 18 18 18.10
 South Africa 5 10 5.75
Grand Total 100 85 100.00

The arrangement is scheduled to start lending in 2016.[3]

  1. ^ a b "Treaty for the Establishment of a BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement". Government of Brazil. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
  2. ^ a b c "What the new bank of BRICS is all about". The Washington Post. 17 July 2014. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
  3. ^ a b "BRICS Bank ready for launch - Russian Finance Minister". Russia & India Report. 10 July 2014. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
  4. ^ a b "BRICS currency fund to protect members from volatility - Russia's top banker". Russia & India Report. 17 July 2014. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
  5. ^ a b "BRICS Development bank top on Agenda of 6th BRICS Summit". IANS. news.biharprabha.com. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
  6. ^ http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20140719000069&cid=1203[permanent dead link‍] Beijing dominates voting rights of BRICS reserve pool