Juan Curutchet LLM ’92 leads the Central Bank of Argentina at a pivotal economic moment

Since becoming director of the Central Bank of Argentina in 2023, Juan Curutchet LLM ’92 has been on the front lines of an ongoing effort to set Argentina’s economic house in order, amid crippling inflation, a struggling Argentine peso, and fiscal restraints. Still, he says, he embraces those challenges as a chance to effect positive change—however, incremental.

In this Q&A, Curutchet reflects on how NYU Law prepared him for a career in international finance, discusses some of the urgent economic questions facing Argentina, and shares his dream for bringing more unity to Latin America.

Can you describe your role at the Central Bank of Argentina?

In the US, you have the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Federal Reserve. The Argentine Central Bank includes the powers of all three of those agencies. In addition to serving as director, I’m also the superintendent of banks. In that capacity, I oversee the health of banks. Over the last year, that assignment has expanded to include fintech companies and other payment systems that are part of the ecosystem.

At the Central Bank, I have a six-year mandate. Our main focus is reining in inflation. Argentina has dealt with rampant inflation. For decades, banks in Argentina have grown accustomed to working with it. So now they have a challenge in terms of health, of solvency, of liquidity, and other drivers. During the next two to three years, being the superintendent will be a tougher job than it was before. But it’s all for a good purpose because we will have an expansion and probably a consolidation of the system. And the entities will have to offer a good value proposition to depositors and borrowers. We will be ensuring that banks really work as banks.

How did you develop an interest in law?

I was born and raised in Buenos Aires. My family is what is known as porteños—as in, people from the port. I am a fourth-generation lawyer. Growing up, I watched my father talk over the dinner table about different lawsuits and the conflicts in his cases. By the time I was 15 years old, I started mentioning that I would go to law school and be a lawyer. I have a clear preference for the social sciences—politics, economics, literature, history, and geography. And it was natural to pay attention to politics because my last year of high school was also the last year [1983] of the military dictatorship in Argentina.

What led you to enroll in NYU Law?

In my last year of high school, I did a summer session at Phillips Academy at Andover, Massachusetts. And there, interestingly, I took law courses. One of which was “The Supreme Court and the Constitution,” where I studied 30 cases. I also had “Law, Politics and Society,” which covered Plato to Niccolò Machiavelli. The next year, I attended a summer session at Harvard University. The courses were positive encouragement. In the years after, I continued my education and graduated from the University of Buenos Aires School of Law in 1989.

I wanted to study in a foreign country. You could make the case to study in England, in France, in Germany, but the US was the first option for many reasons—not only in terms of business, politics, and culture. But even the mythological part appealed to me. The idea that people went there to obtain freedom. I wanted to experience New York, and so I applied to NYU.

As you reflect on your time at NYU Law, what stands out to you?

Being in New York was incredible. Even though you don’t have a lot of money as a student, all of a sudden you see that Luciano Pavarotti is performing for free in Central Park, or that the Dalai Lama is at an event or that the president of Argentina is appearing somewhere. I saw such a wide array of people and shows at that time. Still, you have to have discipline because there’s work to do and you need to put lots of hours into your studies.

At NYU, I took corporate classes with Marcel Kahan [George T. Lowy Professor of Law], who was very smart. I also had John Slain ’55 as a professor, who was very likable—I remember how he would comment on the baseball game from the previous night, which I typically had not seen.

Another professor I cannot forget was Andreas Lowenfeld [Herbert and Rose Rubin Professor of International Law]. In fact, some of the things that I’m doing today I can trace back to what I studied with him because we looked at international organizations like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Now I’m engaging with those organizations directly, which is amazing.

What happened in the years after graduation?

I consider myself a US-trained lawyer. I took the New York bar exam, which was a fantastic experience. For two months, you breathe, think, and smell only the issues and questions for that exam. After that, I became a foreign associate at Vinson & Elkins in Houston and Howrey & Simon in Washington, DC. When I graduated, the US was just coming out of a recession. It was not easy to find a job. But the nineties were a good time for Argentina. And so I went back and worked in private practice.

In Argentina, the degree of specialization with the law firms is not what it is in the US. I was a general corporate lawyer, and I saw myself as a clinical doctor. If a company or top management came to me with a problem, I could either solve it or recommend who to go to for advice. By chance, a client and close friend was appointed president and chairman of Banco de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. He named me vice president of the board [in 2008], which started my journey in banking. State-owned banks serve a commercial purpose, but they’re also supposed to have the public good in mind. I then went [in 2016] to Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, where I served as president of the board for four years before going back into private practice.

When the new administration [under President Javier Milei] was elected [in 2023], I was offered the Central Bank position. At the end of the day, all kinds of backgrounds may be admissible for the job. But I believe that my experience in state-owned commercial banks had elevated my standing for the position since I could not be associated with any single private bank.

What do you enjoy the most about your work and what challenges do you face?

I like that it involves a combination of subjects. For example, we have to decide within the next few months—will we allow banks to get into the crypto world or not? If we do, will it just be for stablecoins? Can they speculate on that? What would be the threshold? What would be the limits? How do you address the risks? It’s very interesting because we don’t have the solutions. In my previous work with banks, I had an idea of what the problems were and how I wanted to move. Now many of the issues are open with no clear solution. And so I’m learning all the time.

Banks across Latin America and the Caribbean have long struggled to attain equitable access to the international marketplace. How are banks in Argentina faring?

Argentina is in a different situation. We have the example of decades in which we have defaulted so many times. We don’t want to be in the position of being a victim because that approach affects our credit rating. We’re working as a government to get out of that situation.

But if you take the developing world as a whole—yes, it is a problem because a lot of the capital is somewhere else. You can have good government in terms of fiscal austerity. But then for reasons beyond your control, you can have a capital outflow from developing countries to central economies, which brings a lot of instability. That is why it’s so important for developing countries to respect the rule of law because you pay a very visible long-term price for the disarray that governments cause. It is also very easy to blame others. But we have to be attractive as a marketplace. You compete a lot in this world. You compete for capital, talent, goods, and services. So you have to be professional. Sometimes, not all governments are professional.

Experts point to a range of factors signaling uncertainty in the global economy today. How is the current climate impacting your work?

It is true that some problems are just too big. Ultimately, I’m part of a chain. I can make a contribution, even though I can’t solve the whole problem by myself. It’s about making a best-effort approach. As to uncertainty—in banking, there are two columns. At the end of the day, it’s about solvency and liquidity. If you have that, then you’re healthy. When those two columns shake, that is the day when I’ll be stressed.

What future ambitions do you have in your career?

In the next few years, whether at the Central Bank or another position, I want to continue to make a difference. I think Argentina has an opportunity to get back on track. I realize that as a person of age, I might not see the crop. Right now, it’s about sowing the seeds. A country can change a lot in one or four years, but to have a lasting impact, you’re really talking about several decades. I’m very enthusiastic about the possibility of contributing to a country that wants to be serious, that respects the rule of law and has sound economic institutions.

I have in my head a book about regional integration. Can one country really be developed when so many others surrounding it are not? Investors don’t focus on just one country. They look at the region. I believe that Latin America made a mistake almost two centuries ago. When independence was achieved, we raised barriers when we should have integrated in terms of economics, human resources, and culture. Think about a pop singer. Sure, you can be successful in Argentina. But if you reach the whole of South America, you attain critical mass. And then you’re strong enough to go international. I want to explore these ideas and write a book about the future of LATAM. And so, yes, I’m satisfied, but I still have a lot more to do.

This interview has been condensed and edited.