TEHRAN – The governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has said Iran is going to become a member of the New Development Bank, formerly referred to as the BRICS Development Bank, IRIB reported.

Speaking to the press on the sidelines of the BRICS annual summit in Russia, Mohammadreza Farzin said: “The New Development Bank can pursue many of the development goals of the BRICS member countries because today the World Bank operates within the framework of the goals of the United States and Western countries. We hope that the BRICS Development Bank will play this role for BRICS member countries and we intend to become a member of this bank.”

During the period when Iran was the secretary of BRICS, the Islamic Republic made good agreements with the Central Bank of Russia regarding the connection of the two countries’ banking networks and financial and monetary cooperation, all of which have been raised again at BRICS summit, Farzin said.

“We have a payment system between countries based on local currencies, which was one of the topics of this meeting. China, Russia and Iran are very interested in this issue,” he noted.

The New Development Bank (NDB), formerly referred to as the BRICS Development Bank, is a multilateral development bank established by the BRICS states (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa).

According to the Agreement on the NDB, "the Bank shall support public or private projects through loans, guarantees, equity participation and other financial instruments." Moreover, the NDB "shall cooperate with international organizations and other financial entities, and provide technical assistance for projects to be supported by the Bank."

EF/MA