The BRICS Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting is one of the principal sectoral tracks within the BRICS grouping, which originally comprised Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The format brings together finance ministers and central bank heads, usually on the margins of G20 finance track meetings and IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings, as well as in dedicated sessions hosted by the rotating BRICS chair ahead of the annual leaders' summit.
Their agenda typically covers global macroeconomic conditions, IMF quota and governance reform, multilateral development bank policy, cooperation through the New Development Bank (NDB) established in 2014, and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA), a currency swap-style facility also created in 2014 with an initial size of US$100 billion. More recent meetings have addressed local-currency settlement, payment-system interoperability, sustainable finance taxonomies, and coordinated positions on international tax matters such as the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework.
The track produces joint communiqués that feed into the BRICS Leaders' Declaration. For example, finance ministers' preparatory work shaped sections of the Johannesburg II Declaration (2023) and the Kazan Declaration (2024), particularly on cross-border payments and reform of the international financial architecture.
Following the 2024 enlargement, which admitted Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates as full members (Saudi Arabia's status remained under discussion, and Argentina declined to join), the finance ministers' track expanded to coordinate among a wider and more economically diverse membership. This has complicated consensus on issues such as de-dollarisation, sanctions exposure, and capital-account policy, since members hold sharply different exchange-rate regimes and reserve-currency dependencies.
The grouping has no permanent secretariat, so continuity between meetings rests with the rotating chair's finance ministry and with the NDB and CRA technical structures. Decisions are non-binding and operate by consensus.
Example
In October 2024, BRICS finance ministers and central bank governors met in Moscow under the Russian chairship to prepare economic deliverables for the Kazan Summit, including discussions on a cross-border payments initiative.
Frequently asked questions
No. Like the rest of BRICS, it operates by consensus and produces non-binding communiqués; commitments are implemented through domestic policy or through institutions like the NDB and CRA.
Keep learning