At the second BRICS Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting held in Mumbai on September 10, 2026, central bank governors from BRICS countries announced a joint capacity-building initiative alongside their ongoing work on local-currency trade settlement and investment promotion. The BRICS Central Bank Hub for Capacity Building will host educational programmes on sustainable finance, cybersecurity, and the use of emerging technologies, marking one of the clearest signals yet that capacity building itself is being treated as a form of financial infrastructure, not a peripheral, nice-to-have activity.
For RMAI and the wider BFSI training ecosystem, this is a significant validation. When central bank governors from five of the world’s largest emerging economies jointly commit to a shared capacity-building hub, it confirms what institutional training providers have argued for years, that a financial system’s resilience depends as much on the depth of its people’s expertise as on its capital adequacy or technology infrastructure.
What Was Actually Announced
The announcement came out of the second FMCBG meeting of India’s 2026 BRICS chairship, following the first meeting held in Jaipur on August 12, 2026.
- BRICS central bank governors jointly announced the BRICS Central Bank Hub for Capacity Building at the Mumbai meeting on September 10, 2026
- The Hub is intended to host educational programmes specifically covering sustainable finance, cybersecurity, and the use of emerging technologies in central banking and financial supervision
- The announcement sits alongside continued BRICS emphasis on settling trade and promoting investment in local currencies, positioning capacity building as a companion pillar to financial and monetary cooperation, not a standalone side initiative
- This follows a broader BRICS 2026 pattern, also visible in the New Delhi Declaration from the 18th BRICS Summit, of building shared institutional capability across insurance resilience, cyber exercises, AI and quantum risk assessment, and now central banking expertise specifically
Why Capacity Building Is Being Treated as Infrastructure
Central banks and financial regulators across emerging economies face a common, structural challenge, the pace of technological and regulatory change is outstripping the speed at which any single institution can build deep expertise internally. A shared capacity-building hub addresses this directly rather than leaving each central bank to solve the same skills gap independently.
- Sustainable finance expertise is becoming a baseline expectation for central bankers and regulators, not a specialist add-on, as climate-linked financial risk assessment becomes embedded in supervisory frameworks
- Cybersecurity capability at the central banking level increasingly determines how well an entire financial system can withstand and recover from a coordinated attack, given how central bank payment and settlement systems sit at the core of national financial infrastructure
- Emerging technology literacy, spanning AI, quantum computing, and digital currencies, is now considered core central banking competency rather than a technical specialism reserved for IT departments
- A shared hub allows BRICS economies to pool expertise and avoid five or more central banks each independently building similar training content from scratch, echoing the same efficiency logic that drives institutional training partnerships within individual countries
Read Now: BRICS 2026 and the Emerging Risk & Resilience Agenda for BFSI
What This Means for RMAI and BFSI Professional Learning
This development reinforces a positioning that RMAI has built its own work around for years, that structured, credentialed professional learning is not a support function sitting alongside risk management, it is part of how financial resilience actually gets built.
- The same three domains highlighted in the BRICS Hub, sustainable finance, cybersecurity, and emerging technology, map directly onto the capability gaps RMAI’s own course catalog and corporate training programmes are designed to close for Indian banks, NBFCs, and insurers
- A central-bank level commitment to capacity building strengthens the case that Indian financial institutions should treat structured training with the same seriousness as capital planning or technology investment, not as a discretionary annual line item
- Institutional capacity building at the BRICS level also signals where regulatory expectations are likely headed domestically, RBI and SEBI have already moved decisively on cyber governance and AI model risk, and sustainable finance capability is a natural next area of supervisory focus
- For BFSI L&D leaders, this is a useful external validation point when making the case internally for sustained investment in structured, certified training rather than one-off workshops
Read Now: Seven Risk Capabilities BFSI Institutions Must Strengthen
Conclusion
When BRICS central bank governors jointly commit to a shared capacity-building hub covering sustainable finance, cybersecurity, and emerging technology, it confirms that institutional expertise has become as much a part of financial infrastructure as capital and technology systems themselves. Indian banks, NBFCs, and insurers that treat structured professional learning with the same strategic weight will be far better positioned as this global emphasis on capacity building continues to shape regulatory and institutional expectations.
Build This Capability with RMAI
RMAI supports Indian BFSI institutions across the same capability areas this BRICS initiative is built around, sustainable finance and ESG, cybersecurity and technology risk, and AI and emerging technology governance. Explore RMAI’s Online Certificate Course in ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) Risks, the Online Course on Cyber Security and Technology Risk Management in Banking, or browse RMAI’s complete suite of risk management courses to build institutional capability matched to this emerging global agenda.
