Portugal Formally Appoints Centeno Bank of Portugal Governor

(Bloomberg) -- The Portuguese government formally appointed Mario Centeno to be the country’s next central bank governor.

Centeno will take over as governor on Monday, government Minister Mariana Vieira da Silva said at a press conference in Lisbon on Thursday following the weekly cabinet meeting.

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa on June 25 confirmed his plan to appoint former finance minister Centeno, 53, to be the next head of the Bank of Portugal. The country’s central bank governors are appointed by the government following a parliamentary hearing and serve five-year terms. Centeno faced a parliamentary hearing on July 8.

Centeno, whose term as Eurogroup president formally ended earlier this week, holds a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University and is a former deputy director of the department of economic studies at the Bank of Portugal. He was initially appointed finance minister in Portugal’s minority Socialist government in 2015 and resigned from that post in June.

Carlos Costa is the current Bank of Portugal governor and his second and final term was due to end this month.

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