Banco Central del Paraguay (BCP) President Carlos Fernández Valdovinos has been awarded Central Bank Governor of the Year by Central Banking, the first time that the publication has given the award to a governor from the Latin American region.

BCP has been a member of the AFI network since 2011. In 2012, it was part of the AFI Maya Declaration’s second wave of commitments, pledging to create a national financial inclusion strategy and achieve a 50% deposits to GDP ratio by 2014. Under the leadership of President Fernández, who was appointed in 2013, the Bank achieved both of its Maya commitments and has since made further pledges under Maya to refine and actively engage in the corporate governance of its financial inclusion strategy.

In 2013, BCP took part in the landmark AFI meeting for Latin American and the Caribbean, which laid the groundwork for AFI’s recently launched Financial Inclusion Initiative for Latin America and the Caribbean (FILAC). As key member of the AFI network, President Fernández and Banco Central del Paraguay are well positioned to take a leadership role FILAC.

In receiving the award, President Fernández has been recognized for his efforts in controlling inflation, increasing productivity, and achieving targets in a low growth, low interest rate environment. He has been instrumental in improving financial stability, and has overseen the 2016 successful revisions of the Central Banks mandates on financial supervision and regulation.