Washington/New Delhi : India has pressed the Brics nations to set up an independent rating agency of the five-member group.
The first meeting of the Brics finance ministers and central bank governors was held on the sidelines of the IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings on Thursday.
Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg sought the support of the Presidency in building consensus amongst the Brics membership on the Brics Rating Agency proposal.
“He requested the Presidency to receive and take forward the report to be submitted by expert group set up under the aegis of Brics Business Council to study the feasibility of the Brics Rating Agency,” the finance ministry said.
India had first mooted the idea of having such an agency for the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) grouping to can solve impediments for the emerging market economies posed by the present credit rating agency market dominated by S&P, Moody’s and Fitch.
These three western rating agencies hold over 90 per cent of the sovereign ratings market.
The other issues discussed during the meeting related to enhancing the project pipelines of New Development Bank (NDB) evenly across member countries, expansion of NDB’s membership.
