The new chief of the Central Bank of Cyprus, Constantinos Herodotou, pledged to “maintain the country’s financial stability” and said in a reconciliating tone that among his chief priorities would be to improve the central bank’s image and status, at home and abroad.
Speaking at the swearing in ceremony at the Presidential Palace, taking over from Governor Chrystalla Georgadji who completed a tumultuous four year term of the banking sector’s restructuring, Herodotou said that he will work with all stakeholders, state officials and the European Central Bank “in order to achieve a valid and dignified representation, earning the respect of international and European partners and colleagues, but also a dignified position for our country in these bodies, through the relevant cooperation.”
Herodotou, a London Business School graduate who worked at UBS Investment Bank in London for most of his career, returned to Cyprus in 2014 as Commissioner for Privatisations and in March 2017 was appointed as an executive member of the central bank board.
In his address during the swearing in ceremony, attended by Finance Minister Haris Georghiades and other state officials, President Anastasiades said that the new Governor’s appointed “fulfills a position of key importance for our economy.”
“You are tasked with a great responsibility. The aim of the government’s economic policy, especially after the recovery following the difficult conditions of the [2013] crisis, is to maintain the positive development path and the creation of conditions for a viable mid and long term growth, to the benefit of all our citizens,” the president said.
Anastasiades added that “towards this end, the promotion of a framework reform for the corporate governance of the Central Bank is a fundamental aim in the immediate future.
“At the same time, through various measures taken both by the government and the Central Bank, as well as the [commercial] banks, the level of non-performing loans has significantly been reduced, even though it remains at high levels, thus becoming a significant challenge which we are obliged to overcome together.”
