International

After the BRICS Bank, the five-member bloc of emerging nations is considering setting up a credit ratings firm in its efforts to challenge western hegemony in the world of finance. The credit rating agency for emerging markets, as it is tentatively called, is likely to take shape at the BRICS Summit to be hosted by India in October. The idea of a non-western ratings firm for the emerging markets has been in discussion among the leaders of the BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — for the past few years, said officials with knowledge of the plan.

Amid improving market sentiment and a weakening dollar, the World Bank is raising its 2016 forecast for crude oil prices to $41 per barrel from $37 per barrel in its latest Commodity Markets Outlook, as an oversupply in markets is expected to recede.

Remittances to developing countries grew only marginally in 2015, as weak oil prices and other factors strained the earnings of international migrants and their ability to send money home to their families, says the World Bank’s latest edition of the Migration and Development Brief, released today.

Actis, a leading growth markets investor, today confirmed an agreement to sell Emerging Markets Payments (‘EMP’), the leading Africa and Middle East payments business, to Network International. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals.