| Bank Name In Local: | Seðlabanki Íslands |
| Headquarters: | Kalkofnsvegur 1, Reykjavík |
| Ownership: | 100% state ownership[1] |
| President: | Ásgeir Jónsson |
| Leader Title: | Governor |
| Bank Of: | Iceland |
| Currency: | Icelandic króna |
| Currency Iso: | ISK |
| Reserves: | 4.790 billion USD |
| Website: | |
| Preceded: | Landsbanki Íslands |
The Central Bank of Iceland (is|Seðlabanki Íslands, pronounced as /is/) is the central bank or reserve bank of Iceland. It is owned by the Icelandic government, and is administered by a governor and a seven-member supervisory board, elected by the country's parliament following each general election.[2] It has the sole right to issue notes and coins of Icelandic krónur and to manage the state's foreign currency reserves.
The Central Bank of Iceland was created in 1961 by an act of the Alþingi out of the central banking department of Landsbanki Íslands, which had been the island's sole bank of issue since 1927 and had conducted only limited monetary policy.
The Central Bank Act of 1986 eliminated the ability of the Central Bank to regulate the interest rates of commercial banks and savings banks.
Though nominally independent, the Central Bank of Iceland was historically expected to follow the lead of the central government. In 2001, however, a floating exchange rate policy was introduced and since then the Central Bank has been empowered to adopt an inflation target and manage monetary policy so as to achieve price stability independent of the policies of the central government.
In 2015, after the 2008–2011 Icelandic financial crisis, the government of Iceland considered "a revolutionary monetary proposal" to abolish private money creation and to end to fractional-reserve banking.[3] Similar to the Swiss Sovereign Money Initiative, this plan would remove the power of money creation from the commercial banks and give it to the Central Bank of Iceland.[3] The option was not implemented.
On, the Central Bank of Iceland absorbed the Financial Supervisory Authority, previously an independent institution established in 1999.[4]
| Governor | Took office | Left office | Tenure length | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jóhannes Nordal | 1961 | 1993 | years | |
| 2 | Jón G. Maríasson | 1961 | 1967 | years | |
| 3 | Vilhjálmur Þór | 1961 | 1964 | years | |
| 4 | Sigtryggur Klemensson | 1966 | 1971 | years | |
| 5 | Davíð Ólafsson | 1967 | 1986 | years | |
| 6 | Svanbjörn Frímannsson | 1971 | 1973 | years | |
| 7 | Guðmundur Hjartarson | 1974 | 1984 | years | |
| 8 | Tómas Árnason | 1985 | 1993 | years | |
| 9 | Geir Hallgrímsson | 1986 | 1990 | years | |
| 10 | Birgir Ísleifur Gunnarsson | 1991 | 2005 | years | |
| 11 | Jón Sigurðsson | 1993 | 1994 | years | |
| 12 | Steingrímur Hermannsson | 1994 | 1998 | years | |
| 13 | Finnur Ingólfsson | 2000 | 2002 | years | |
| 14 | Ingimundur Friðriksson | 2002 | 2003 | years | |
| 15 | Jón Sigurðsson | 2003 | 2006 | years | |
| 16 | Eiríkur Guðnason | 1994 | 2009 | years | |
| 17 | Davíð Oddsson | 2005 | 2009 | years | |
| 18 | Ingimundur Friðriksson | 2006 | 2009 | years | |
| 19 | Svein Harald Øygard | 2009 | 2009 | years | |
| 20 | Már Guðmundsson | 2009 | 2019 | years | |
| 21 | Ásgeir Jónsson | 2019 | Incumbent | years |