Inside Redrado’s battle for Argentina’s central bank
The creeping hand of the state
The end of the Redrado era: a timeline
The presidency of Argentina’s central bank is one of the toughest jobs in the financial markets. As well as possessing the necessary technical skills, the bank’s head needs to demonstrate political dexterity and a stomach for the odd financial crisis. So perhaps the biggest surprise of Martin Redrado’s tenure was not its end but that he survived for as long as he did. Even though he fell short of seeing out his full term, he is the second-longest-serving president in the institution’s history.
When he assumed office in September 2004, Argentina had yet to undertake its restructuring on $81 billion of defaulted debt. The offer was made the following year. That issue remains a hurdle for Argentina, with investors still holding about $20 billion of debt waiting for better terms.
Indeed one of the reasons why Redrado was so against the government taking $6.6 billion of the central bank’s reserves was because he feared it might lead these bondholders to bring lawsuits against the bank.
Redrado says his biggest success was to bring order and stability to the financial system.