Indian private banker K.V Kamath was named Monday as the first head of the new development bank being set up by the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) group of emerging market economies, Indian media reported.

"Kamath has been appointed as the head of the BRICS bank. The appointment will become effective when he is free from his current assignments," said Indian Finance Secretary Mehrishi. He also pointed out that the appointment has been approved by the Indian President. According to Reuters, India has informed other BRICS countries of the decision.

Kamath, 68, is a veteran banker who was credited with developing ICICI Bank Private Ltd into India's second-largest lender. He headed the bank for 13 years until 2009 and is now its non-executive chairman.

The BRICS agreed to set up the 100 billion dollar development bank last July. The bank will begin with a 50 billion dollar paid up capital contributed equally by its five founding member countries. It was agreed that the New Development Bank would be based in Shanghai.

It is reported that the bank secretariat is now located on the eighth floor at China Financial Information Center in Shanghai's Pudong District. The full name of the secretariat is "The Technical Secretariat of the New Development Bank".

This article was edited and translated from 《印度人卡马特将任金砖银行首任行长》, source: ce.cn.