Central Bank of Venezuela

The Central Bank of Venezuela (, BCV) is the central bank of Venezuela. It is responsible for issuing and maintaining the value of the Venezuelan bolívar and is the governing agent of the Venezuelan Clearing House System (including an automated clearing house).

History Foundation and currency management Since its inception in the late 1930s, the BCV was given a clear mandate to control the monetary policy of the nation, centralizing the operations of a handful of private banks that used to mint the Venezuelan currency, the bolívar. For almost 50 years the BCV managed to sustain a remarkable strong currency, with inflation rates hovering on the 2-3% mark during that period.

1980s oil glut

However, since the oil glut of the 1980s and the first serious devaluation of the currency in 1983 (known in Venezuela as Viernes Negro, or Black Friday) the bolívar has been plagued with chronic instability, mistrust and declining value that has been fed by the continued rise in inflation, topping an estimate for 2018 of one million per cent. Most of the foreign reserves are held as gold bars in Germany (almost 64%).

Until 2015 the Supplementary System for the Administration of Foreign Currency (SICAD) operated as an alternative foreign exchange system for businesses and individuals. Given its ineffectiveness and the continued rise of the parallel (black market) exchange rate the system was discontinued in favor of the "Complementary Currency System", known for its Spanish acronym DICOM.

2017: Hyperinflation Since December 2017 Venezuela the CPI has presented a behavior that fits most of the definitions for hyperinflation, the first in the country's history. The bank, subject to a strong control by the executive branch of the Venezuelan government, has ceased the publication of metrics such as the CPI and gross domestic product variation, creating a vacuum that has left investors and the public in a general state of disarray.

2019: Sanctions In April 2019, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned the Central Bank of Venezuela "to prevent it from being used as a tool of the illegitimate Maduro regime".

Mandate By law, the Central Bank of Venezuela is autonomous to formulate and exercise policies in its field of competence and it performs its duties and functions in coordination with the general economic policy. The Constitution grants the central bank autonomy to outline and implement the policies. However, as of 2016, reforms deemed unconstitutional by some effectively nullified the BCV's independent status.

The export, import or trade of Venezuelan or foreign currency are subject to the regulations established by the BCV, including the departure or arrival of coin and notes made by another countries by BCV's express order.

System for Transactions with Foreign Currency Securities The Central Bank is able to issue bonds through the System for Transactions with Foreign Currency Securities (SITME). In 2012, it was reported that $44 million worth of bonds were purchased through SITME in a single day for Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A.

Presidents of the Central Bank of Venezuela President Took office Left office NotesJesús Herrera Mendoza19401948Carlos Mendoza Goiticoa19481953Aurelio Arreaza Arreaza19531958Alfonso Espinosa19581960Alfredo Machado Gómez19611968Benito Raúl Losada19681971Alfredo Lafée19711976Benito Raúl Losada19761979Carlos Rafael Silva19791981Leopoldo Díaz Bruzual19811984Benito Raúl Losada19841986Hernán Anzola19861987Mauricio García Araujo19871989Pedro R. Tinoco19891992Miguel Rodríguez Fandeo1992Ruth de Krivoy19921994Antonio Casas González19941999Diego Luis Castellanos20002005Gastón Parra Luzardo20052009Nelson Merentes20092013Edmée Betancourt2013Eudomar Tovar20132014Nelson Merentes20142017Ricardo Sanguino2017Ramón Augusto Lobo Moreno2017 2018Calixto Ortega Sánchez20182025Laura Guerra Angulo20252026Luis Alberto Pérez González2026present

Central Bank of Venezuela

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