Historical Review of the Central Bank of Honduras
A Mainstay of the Economy
With a series of political, economic and social events, three important aspects back in time marked the beginning of a new period in the country’s economic development process: the establishment of the Liberal Reform, the creation of our monetary unit – the Lempira (created on April 3rd, 1926 and put into circulation in the 1930s) - and the founding of the Central Bank of Honduras on July 1st, 1950, which raised the country’s nationalization of the means of payment and redirection of the monetary policy, exchange rate and credit.
The Central Bank of Honduras was created on February 3rd, 1950, by Legislative Decree No. 53, and began operations on July 1st of that same year, under Attorney Roberto Ramirez’s Administration, in an inauguration ceremony presided by Doctor Juan Manuel Gálvez, former President of the Republic.
Such Government’s effort represented an extraordinary advance over the situation that prevailed at that time, where only two banks partially satisfied the financial activities of Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula and La Ceiba. In addition, the National Congress approved the Lempira as the official currency which the Government couldn’t establish as a monetary standard until the founding of the CBH.
The 1950 Law’s was the essential basis for the CBH to become the mainstay of the Honduran economy. Subsequently, 46 years later, on December 17, 1996, the National Congress, through Decree No. 228-96, approved a set of reforms to complement the institution’s work with the current conditions and requirements of the financial market. The latest reforms to the CBH’s Law are intended to consolidate the autonomy and independence of the highest monetary authority, so that it can fulfill the new role that society, through the Legislative Power, has given it.
