In a recent leadership transition for Dominican Republic’s banking regulatory sector, President Luis Abinader has named seasoned legal and financial specialist Víctor Livio Enmanuel Cedeño Brea to the post of Superintendent of Banks. Cedeño Brea succeeds Alejandro Fernández W., who stepped down after six years at the helm of the key regulatory position.
The official appointment is formalized under Decree 606-26, and aligns with the provisions of the nation’s Monetary and Financial Law, which sets a two-year term of office for the role.
While Cedeño Brea’s foundational professional training is in law, the bulk of his decades-long career has centered on economics, financial governance, regulatory framework development, and enterprise risk management. He is no stranger to the Superintendency of Banks (SB), having previously held the role of Deputy Manager of Regulation and Innovation within the institution, and currently serves as its principal advisor and technical coordinator. Between 2022 and 2024, he also led the Capital Markets division of the Dominican Republic as Deputy Director.
Throughout his tenure at the Superintendency of Banks, Cedeño Brea has overseen a broad range of high-priority portfolios, including regulatory updates, anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CTF) protocols, fintech innovation, expanded financial inclusion, economic policy research, financial entity registration and licensing, and administrative enforcement for regulatory violations.
His expertise runs particularly deep in the areas of prudential regulation, regulatory compliance, and robust financial supervision, with a specialized focus on strengthening global frameworks to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. Beyond his domestic work, Cedeño Brea has built an extensive international profile: he has delivered more than 100 professional training courses in both English and Spanish for international banking stakeholders across 22 cities spanning Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia.
Academically, Cedeño Brea holds a joint doctorate in Law and Economics from the European Doctorate in Law and Economics (EDLE) program, a competitive collaborative initiative delivered by three top European institutions: Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the University of Hamburg in Germany, and the University of Bologna in Italy.