Cypriot president appoints adviser as central bank governor

Christodoulos Patsalides has become governor of the Central Bank of Cyprus after being nominated by president Nikos Christoulides, the presidency announced on April 8.

The new governor is replacing Konstantinos Herodotou, who was appointed to a first five-year term in March 2019. Christoulides, who won election in February 2023, did not say why he had not chosen to appoint Herodotou to a second term.

Patsalides most recently served as special adviser of economic affairs to the president and also helped during his presidential campaign, according to a report in media outlet KNews. 

He studied at Queen Mary University London and the London School of Economics, and worked at the central bank from 1989 until 2006 in the department of external debt and foreign exchange reserves management.

Following his time at the central bank, Patsalides worked for the Bank of Cyprus, where he eventually reached the first deputy chief executive position. He has also served as chairman of the board at the Association of Cyprus Banks in 2018–19.

In January 2017, the attorney-general of Cyprus levied charges against the Bank of Cyprus, naming Patsalides and two other managers for market manipulation, conspiracy and forgery.

The charges related to the lender’s 2013 bail-in, when it was facing collapse. The bank, Patsalides and others named in the suit were acquitted in 2020.

In June 2012, Andreas Eliades, who was chief executive of the lender at the time, understated the bank’s capital shortfall at a meeting with investors. He was sentenced to two and a half years in jail but was eventually acquitted by the supreme court.

The bank required international support in 2013, and, under international guidance from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, converted deposits into shares with the bank.

Those with over €100,000 ($108,500, $130,937 in 2013) deposited in the bank saw 47.5% of their capital converted into bank shares.