The UK-based financial magazine The Banker has awarded Croatian central bank governor Boris Vujcic two titles for 2018, naming him the European Central Banker of the Year and the Global Central Banker of the Year, the Croatian central bank said in a press release on Thursday.

The Banker, a member of the Financial Times Group, has been following global financial developments since 1926. In its January issue it named the regional central banker and global central banker of the year, based on ratings by its editorial board and a survey conducted among bankers and economic analysts.

The Central Banker of the Year Award honours bankers for stimulating growth and stabilising their economy. The award is given globally and regionally, for Europe, North and South America, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, and Africa.

As of 2016, Vujcic also serves as Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Vienna Initiative established in 2009, at the height of the financial crisis, in order to secure financial support by large Western banks for their partners in the Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe region. The initiative was relaunched in 2012 as Vienna 2, as risks were renewed in the region during the euro zone crisis. Now, 17 countries in the region are members of the initiative, as well as international financial institutions, and the European Commission.

The Croatian central bank played an important role in maintaining financial stability during the crisis in Croatian largest privately-owned food and retail conglomerate Agrokor, which emerged in April 2017, the Banker said, adding that the bank had begun to warn against overexposure to the company five years before the crisis was unveiled.

Governor Vujcic also publicly supports structural reforms in the country, the magazine said, especially in education, in order to prepare people for the market dominated by innovation and technological progress, as well as a good immigration policy which can solve the problem of lack of workforce in Croatia.

Vujcic is the second Croatian central bank governor to receive this award: former governor, Zeljko Rohatinski, received it in 2008.

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