Two scientists won this years’ prestigious Vladas Jurgutis award - a historian and a banking researcher

This year’s laureates of Vladas Jurgutis Award, which is granted by the Bank of Lithuania and the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, are historian doctor habilitatus Antanas Tyla and economist doctor Vytautas Valvonis.

"The award has been granted in view of the significant contribution of Antanas Tyla, a famous Lithuanian historian, and of Vytautas Valvonis, a young scientist with already significant achievements in banking research, to Lithuanian banking, finance and economy, as well as to the history of these areas. Meaningfully, the new laureates of this prestigious award are announced today - on the day of the 125th birth anniversary of Vladas Jurgutis, the first Governor of the Bank of Lithuania and former head of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. The award named after Vladas Jurgutis also contributes to preserving his memory", professor Vaidievutis Geralavicius, a member of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania and the Chairman of the Vladas Jurgutis Award Commission said.

The award laureates will be honoured, in December this year they will be given diplomas at the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in Vilnius.

This year, the works of seven authors were nominated for the Award. A Vladas Jurgutis Award Commission, set up of the representatives of the Bank of Lithuania, the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, the Association of Lithuanian Banks and of the lecturers of economic sciences of Vilnius University, by majority vote proposed the Board of the Bank of Lithuania and the Presidium of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences granting the Vladas Jurgutis award to two persons.

A monograph by Antanas Tyla, an expert member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, "The Treasury of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania During Twenty Years of War 1648-1667" has been highly acclaimed because for the first time in historiography it aimed to reveal the operation of the Land Treasury of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during two decades of wars 1648-1667, including its role for the defence of the State, what the tax system was, what political decisions were taken to supplement the Treasury, what inflows and outflows were, their monetary expression and relationship with actual needs. From the analysis provided in the book one is able to get the idea of the social strata that took political decisions on taxes and which of them paid the main portion of them.

Vytautas Valvonis deserved the award for his works carried out over the last five years in the area of banking, particularly of credit risk management, also for the practical benefits in improving risk management in banks, enhancing the soundness of banking operations (one of the reviews has pointed out that, including a doctoral thesis, over the last five years Vytautas Valvonis prepared and published nine scientific articles in local and foreign journals). Presently Vytautas Valvonis has been the head of the Credit Risk Control Unit of the Risk Control Department at the SEB bank, the head of the SEB group pan-Baltic credit risk competence centre. Interestingly, this year’s laureate has finished Palanga Vladas Jurgutis secondary school.

Commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Bank of Lithuania and of the Litas in 1997, the Bank of Lithuania established Vladas Jurgutis Award to mark the merits of academic, professor and the first Governor of the Bank of Lithuania Vladas Jurgutis for Lithuanian banking. The award is granted for significant works in the areas of Lithuanian banking, finance, monetary and macroeconomic research.

In 1998 the Bank of Lithuania and the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences decided to jointly grant a Vladas Jurgutis award. Currently it is in the amount of 50 thousand litas. This year’s two laureates will share half the amount each.

Since the establishment of Vladas Jugutis Award it has been granted for the 5th time already. In 1997 the award was granted to professor Alfonsas Zilenas for significant works in the fields of banking and finance, in 1998 to Stasys Sajauskas and Dominykas Kaubrys for the "The Numismatics of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania" work, and in 1999 to Vladas Terleckas for his books published in 1995-1999 and articles on the history of Lithuanian banking. In 2008 the award was granted to Arunas Dulkys, Juozas Galkus and Stanislovas Sajauskas for the "Lithuanian coins" book.

Vladas Jurgutis, who was born 5 November 1885 in Palanga, headed the Bank of Lithuania from 1922 to 1929. In 1942-1943 he was the President of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. In 1943 together with a group of Lithuanian intellectuals Vladas Jurgutis occurred in the Stutthoff concentration camp for his criticism of the Nazis. He got back to Lithuania in 1945, was a Vilnius University professor for a while, but because of the Soviets’ disfavour he lost this job shortly and managed with difficulty. He died on 9 January 1966 in Vilnius and was buried in Palanga.

The Bank of Lithuania has also established Vladas Jurgutis Scholarship. The scholarship is granted every year to two best full-time students of banking and finance in Lithuanian universities.