The article presents a history of the currency board regime in Argentina. The country's experience gained in the 80s justified the introduction of far-reaching structural changes as well as the implementation of a radical stabilisation plan. Reforms initiated in Argentina concerned all areas of public life, including the tax system, the administration, social benefits, education and the pension system. In 1991, Argentina's monetary system was based on the currency board principle, meaning the abolition of the autonomy of monetary and foreign exchange policies in exchange for full credibility by the central bank. These steps led Argentina down a path of economic success and rapid development until the Mexico crisis revealed the vulnerability of the currency board to external shocks. Currency crisis and the crisis of the banking system of 1995 caused by the so-called "tequila effect" forced the Central Bank of Argentina to take steps to ensure liquidity and to ameliorate the consequences of foreign capital withdrawals.

However, more useful experience may be gained from the way the crisis was managed. In Argentina, the crisis resulted from a coinciding series of external disruptions (including the devaluation of the Brazilian real) that pushed the country towards long-term and deep-reaching recession. The articles describes subsequent action taken in an attempt to prevent the accelerating down-market trend, to restructure the state budget and public finance and to limit the country's increasing dependency on external sources of funds. In their efforts to support the currency board, the monetary authorities applied every possible method of crisis management, starting from the official dollarisation concept, through new exchange rate solutions under the existing system and limitations in withdrawing deposits to the total freezing of deposits and the suspension of foreign debt servicing at the end of 2001.

Despite all efforts, trust in the stability of the currency board continued to fall while financial markets lost confidence in the long- and short-term solvency of Argentina. As a result, January 2002 saw the abolition of the currency board system. The central bank was once more able to be in charge of autonomous monetary and foreign exchange policies, it began to act as a last resort lender, and the exchange rate of the peso was subject to devaluation.