NEW DELHI: The government has appointed ICICI Bank chairman KV Kamath as the first president of the BRICS Bank , the multilateral funding agency with Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa as its founding members.

Kamath’s appointment is seen as a surprise choice since a politician was widely expected to be appointed as the first president.

As part of the understanding, India had got the right to nominate the first head of the multilateral bank in return for China getting the headquarters.

As the first president Kamath will have a tough task setting up the bank and also guiding the way BRICS Bank would function in the coming years.

In recent months, BRICS Bank has somewhat dropped off the radar with China driving the setting up of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank , which has seen massive interest from across the world.

The new entity is seen to be crucial to fund infrastructure and other long-term projects in the country and in the region.

Kamath is no stranger to multilateral banks, having spent eight years at the Asian Development Bank before returning to India in 1996 to take charge of ICICI, which was a development financial institution. Kamath had joined ICICI in 1971.

The IIM Ahmedabad alumnus is credited with successfully converting the entity into a modern retail bank, which is now the second largest lender after State Bank of India and the largest private sector entity. Kamath is also the chairman of Infosys.

He took over as the non-executive chairman in April 2009 after passing on the baton to his protégé Chanda Kochhar, who is now the ICICI Bank managing director and CEO.