The Bank of the South, an initiative spearheaded by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, was inaugurated on 9 December 2007. The finance ministers of Venezuela, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Peru and Chile will all sit in the bank’s board of directors.
The new bank is Latin America’s response to years of subservience to the dictates of U.S.-dominated financial institutions. "The Bank of the South is a strategy ... aimed at freeing us from the chains of dependence and underdevelopment," Chávez said.
The Bank of the South will fund projects ranging from infrastructure development to anti-poverty programs without the "strings attached" model of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank that only seek to further the interests of foreign capital.
It is set to have its headquarters in Caracas, with further offices in Buenos Aires and La Paz. It is scheduled to be operational in early 2008, with an estimated initial capital of 7 billion dollars.
The bank is planned to finance development and integration projects with a low rate of interest.
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