Brazil attracted most of the world's attention during July as the FIFA World Cup came to an end and the five BRICS heads of state met in Fortaleza. While the country's national team didn't do as well on the football field as they were expected to, the Sixth BRICS summit was pronounced a great success.

As has been widely reported, the main news from Fortaleza was the agreement on the capital base and headquarters for BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) and establishing a Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) - a $100 billion contingency fund, available for the group members to draw on in financial emergencies. Expected to be up and running in two years, the NDB was first announced at the fourth BRICS summit in New Delhi in 2012. It is seen as the first major achievement of BRICS since the group first got together in 2009 and the first practical attempt by developing countries to create a finance, trade, monetary and development alternative to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and the prominent status of the U.S. dollar. After much strenuous debate, it emerged that the NDB would be headquartered in Shanghai, with India holding the rotating presidency for the first five years.

The NDB has the potential to be an important source of finance for much needed infrastructure in Africa. South Africa's Finance Minister, Nhlanhla Nene, said the beauty of BRICS being a collective is the NDB is in the interest of all five countries. Nene said a regional center of the bank would be located in Johannesburg and benefit South Africa and the African continent. "South Africa welcomes the establishment of the bank and is excited about the economic potential that this institution will bring to the continent."

In China, Chen Bo, an economist at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, was equally upbeat. Chen said the bank will greatly benefit Shanghai as intergovernmental loans bring in more commercial transactions. In this regard, favorable policies expected to be launched in the experimental Shanghai Free Trade Zone will help create a hospitable business environment.

The NDB is a long held dream of BRICS and provides a much needed pool from which to deepen economic cooperation and prove that BRICS is more than just a talk-shop. The bank will also go a long way to strengthen investor confidence in the capacities of emerging economies. These economies are signaling that despite the impact of the global economic crisis, they can succeed through cooperation as a collective. In this way, the commonly held view that doubted BRICS could become an international force to be reckoned with, because of an inability to connect their common interests, has been topped by the united wish of members to counter the "Western dominated international financial system." Could the NDB be a threat to the World Bank and the CRA a threat to the IMF? Maybe, although not in the forseeable future.The IMF has welcomed the move to set up a new BRICS development bank saying it is ready to work with the NDB's leadership. What is perhaps of more importance, is that the NDB presents BRICS with a central rally point that may bring the group members closer politically.