Long-serving Uzbek Central Bank chief Fayzulla Mullajanov has died at the age of 67, relatives said.
Members of Mullajanov's family told RFE/RL that he died in Tashkent on May 23 of kidney failure.
There was no official announcement about Mullajanov's death in the tightly controlled Central Asian country.
Mullajanov had headed the Central Bank since 1991, the year Uzbekistan gained independence in the collapse of the Soviet Union.*
Mullajanov's health had reportedly been deteriorating for the past two years, but autocratic former President Islam Karimov reportedly refused to accept his resignation even after he suffered kidney failure and was briefly in a coma.
Karimov died last year, after more than 25 years in power, and was replaced by longtime Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyaev.
News reports and sources at the bank, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter, said the bank's first deputy chairman, Saidkamol Hojaev, was named acting chairman.
