In today’s fast-changing global economy, central banks are playing a critical role in stabilizing markets and shaping long-term prosperity, overseeing more than $40 trillion in assets worldwide.
At Warwick Economic Summit 2026, at a high-level panel gathering governors from diverse economies, discussions focused on how monetary authorities confront shared challenges – from persistent inflation and geopolitical uncertainty to the rapid rise of digital currencies – while operating within vastly different institutional and political environments.
During the debate, special attention was drawn to Bosnia and Herzegovina, after a World Bank statistic revealed that the country’s central bank is among the most trusted public institutions.
Responding to the question of what stands behind that trust, Governor Jasmina Selimović of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina provided a historical perspective rooted in the country’s post-war reconstruction.
She recalled that under the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the war in 1995, Bosnia and Herzegovina inherited an extremely fragmented and complex financial system. At the time, the country had multiple currencies in circulation, state-dominated banks with unknown levels of toxic assets, and payment systems split along geopolitical lines. In one entity, financial flows were tied to the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, even using its currency, while settlements in other parts of the country operated without proper supervision.
“The central bank was created literally from scratch in such an environment,” Selimović said. The institution began operating in August 1997, and within two years managed to untie the country’s payment systems from neighboring states and introduce a single currency – the convertible mark. Since August 11, 1997, all prices have been denominated in the national currency.
Public confidence was further complicated by memories of hyperinflation in Yugoslavia during the late 1980s, when annual inflation reportedly reached 1,800 percent – one of the most extreme cases in modern economic history.
“Having a very young institution just after the war, it was extremely challenging to build public confidence,” Selimović noted.
She emphasized that the country’s strict currency board arrangement – pegging the convertible mark to the euro at a fixed exchange rate (previously to the German mark at a 1:1 ratio) – and the central bank’s unwavering focus on its mandate have been key pillars of credibility.
Operating in a country of roughly 3.3 million people but with 135 ministers across multiple levels of government, Selimović highlighted the complexity of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s political structure as an additional challenge for economic governance and investment attractiveness.
Turning to digital currencies, the discussion shifted to developments in emerging Europe and the European Central Bank’s Digital Euro project.
Selimović argued that global momentum around stablecoins backed by the U.S. dollar has accelerated Europe’s digital currency efforts. However, she stressed that the Digital Euro project is primarily intended for eurozone and EU member states, covering roughly one-third of the global economy and around 350 million people.
Countries outside the European Union, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, are not part of the initiative. For smaller economies with lower purchasing power and disposable income compared to the EU average, she questioned whether launching a domestic digital currency would bring tangible benefits.
“Introducing a digital currency would mean spending billions. Honestly, I don’t see the huge benefit compared to our current instant payment systems,” she stated.
Instead, Selimović concluded that faster and deeper integration into EU payment and financial infrastructure would be a more effective strategy for Bosnia and Herzegovina than developing its own central bank digital currency.
