Einars Repše During this period, he oversaw the introduction of the Latvian rublis, Latvia's temporary transition currency, and the Lats, independent Latvia's new currency. Under Repše, the Bank of Latvia pursued a tight monetary policy, implementing a de facto currency board for the Lats. As a result, the exchange rate of the lat has been stable since the early 1990s till now. The success of the Lats made Repše very popular in Latvia. In 2001, Repše resigned from the Bank of Latvia to return to politics. He founded the New Era Party, a Populist anti-corruption party. After the 2002 elections, Repše became
European Currency Unit European Currency Unit The European Currency Unit (₠ or ECU, ) was a basket of the currencies of the European Community member states, used as the unit of account of the European Community before being replaced by the euro on 1 January 1999, at parity. The ECU itself replaced the European Unit of Account, also at parity, on 13 March 1979. The European Exchange Rate Mechanism attempted to minimize fluctuations between member state currencies and the ECU. The ECU was also used in some international financial transactions, where its advantage was that securities denominated in ECUs provided investors with the