Central Bank governor Héctor Valdez Albizu was appointed by president Leonel Fernández’s administration in 2004, giving him his third term in the job. Widely regarded as having brought “sanity” to the macroeconomic situation, he was recently named The Banker’s Central Banker of the Year 2006 for the Americas.
Mr Valdez Albizu’s insistence on taking a tough line against bank executives who were allegedly responsible for the collapse of three of the country’s largest banks has been at the cost of threats and vendettas, earning him a reputation for remarkable impartiality, courage and the ability to keep a cool head. It has been said that his appointment in 2004 was enough to restore confidence to an economy that was feared to be on the verge of meltdown.