20 August 2009

Már Guðmundsson takes over as Governor of the Central Bank

Már Guðmundsson took over from Svein Harald Øygard as Governor of the Central Bank today. Since 2004, Már has served as Deputy Head of the Monetary and Economic Department of the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland. (see: news release from the BIS). Prior to that, he was employed by the Central Bank of Iceland for nearly two decades, including ten years as Chief Economist.

The Prime Minister appointed Már Guðmundsson to the position of Governor of the Central Bank for a term of five years, effective August 20, 2009, and Arnór Sighvatsson to the position of Deputy Governor of the Central Bank for a term of four years, effective July 1, 2009, pursuant to Article 23, Paragraph 1 of the Act on the Central Bank of Iceland. The appointments were made following advertisements and a pre-selection process.

Már says that he will spend his first days carefully reviewing the work carried out by the Central Bank in recent months. He notes that the staff and senior management of the Bank have worked very hard under extraordinarily difficult circumstances and that this work will continue. He will also focus his efforts on the future of the financial system and the role of the Central Bank of Iceland.

No. 27/2009
August 20, 2009

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