Central Bank of Iceland

Iceland bonds had an Inverted yield curve in 2008 Template:Legend-line Template:Legend-line Template:Legend-line

The Central Bank of Iceland (Template:Langx, Template:IPA) is the central bank or reserve bank of Iceland. It is owned by the Icelandic government, and is administered by a governor and a seven-member supervisory board, elected by the country's parliament following each general election.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It has the sole right to issue notes and coins of Icelandic krónur and to manage the state's foreign currency reserves.

History

The Central Bank of Iceland was created in 1961 by an act of the Alþingi out of the central banking department of Landsbanki Íslands, which had been the island's sole bank of issue since 1927 and had conducted only limited monetary policy.

The Central Bank Act of 1986 eliminated the ability of the Central Bank to regulate the interest rates of commercial banks and savings banks.

Though nominally independent, the Central Bank of Iceland was historically expected to follow the lead of the central government. In 2001, however, a floating exchange rate policy was introduced and since then the Central Bank has been empowered to adopt an inflation target and manage monetary policy so as to achieve price stability independent of the policies of the central government.

In 2015, after the 2008–2011 Icelandic financial crisis, the government of Iceland considered "a revolutionary monetary proposal" to abolish private money creation and to end to fractional-reserve banking.<ref name=AFP>Agence France-Presse, "Iceland looks at ending boom and bust with radical money plan", The Daily Telegraph, 31 March 2015 (page visited on 13 April 2018).</ref> Similar to the Swiss Sovereign Money Initiative, this plan would remove the power of money creation from the commercial banks and give it to the Central Bank of Iceland.<ref name=AFP/> The option was not implemented.Template:Cn

On Template:Date, the Central Bank of Iceland absorbed the Financial Supervisory Authority, previously an independent institution established in 1999.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Leadership

#	Governor	Took office	Left office	Tenure length
1	Jóhannes Nordal	1961	1993	Template:Age in years years
2	Jón G. Maríasson	1961	1967	Template:Age in years years
3	Vilhjálmur Þór	1961	1964	Template:Age in years years
4	Sigtryggur Klemensson	1966	1971	Template:Age in years years
5	Davíð Ólafsson	1967	1986	Template:Age in years years
6	Svanbjörn Frímannsson	1971	1973	Template:Age in years years
7	Guðmundur Hjartarson	1974	1984	Template:Age in years years
8	Tómas Árnason	1985	1993	Template:Age in years years
9	Geir Hallgrímsson	1986	1990	Template:Age in years years
10	Birgir Ísleifur Gunnarsson	1991	2005	Template:Age in years years
11	Jón Sigurðsson	1993	1994	Template:Age in years years
12	Steingrímur Hermannsson	1994	1998	Template:Age in years years
13	Finnur Ingólfsson	2000	2002	Template:Age in years years
14	Ingimundur Friðriksson	2002	2003	Template:Age in years years
15	Jón Sigurðsson	2003	2006	Template:Age in years years
16	Eiríkur Guðnason	1994	2009	Template:Age in years years
17	Davíð Oddsson	2005	2009	Template:Age in years years
18	Ingimundur Friðriksson	2006	2009	Template:Age in years years
19	Svein Harald Øygard	2009	2009	Template:Age in years years
20	Már Guðmundsson	2009	2019	Template:Age in years years
21	Ásgeir Jónsson	2019	Incumbent	Template:Age in years years

See also

• 2008–2011 Icelandic financial crisis
• Economy of Iceland
• Financial Supervisory Authority (Iceland)
• Icelandic króna
• List of central banks
• List of financial supervisory authorities by country

External links

• Official website Template:Webarchive Template:In lang
• Official website Template:In lang