India sees BRICS development bank agreed by 2014 summit

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The five BRICS nations hope to complete preparations for their proposed joint development bank by their 2014 summit in Brazil, India's finance minister, P. Chidambaram, said on Friday.

The emerging powers group - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - announced last month at a summit in Durban, South Africa their intention to set up their own development bank to reduce their reliance on Western financial institutions.

"The BRICS finance ministers met in Washington and we reiterated our commitment to the BRICS bank," said Chidambaram.

"Before we go to Brazil for the next summit, that is one year from Durban, we hope to complete our homework," he said in remarks at the Peterson Institute in Washington.

He said officials from the five countries - who represent a fifth of global Gross Domestic Product and have high geopolitical importance in their separate regions - would refine the plan and work out technical details for leaders to sign next year in Brazil.

Questions of where the bank will be located and respective contributions of member countries would be made by the leaders, said Chidambaram.

"We hope that we can complete our work in 12 months," he said. "It's an ambitious agenda, but we are going to work hard on that." (Reporting by Paul Eckert; Editing by Andrea Ricci)