Mumbai: The Centre on Monday announced the appointment of IDBI Bank managing director and CEO Mahesh Kumar Jain as the deputy governor of the RBI for three years.

Jain will replace S. S. Mundra, who retired as the deputy governor in July last year after completing his three-year term. Since then the position has been lying vacant.

The RBI has four deputy governors of which one is a commercial banker, two are from within the ranks and another an economist. Other serving deputy governors are Viral V. Acharya, N. S. Vishwanathan and B. P. Kanungo.

The announcement was made by financial services secretary Rajeev Kumar. 'The government appoints experienced banker Mahesh Kumar Jain, MD & CEO of IDBI Bank, as deputy governor of the RBI for a term of three years," he tweeted.

Jain, with 30 years of banking experience, has been the MD and CEO of IDBI Bank since March 2017. Before this, he was the managing director of Chennai-based Indian Bank. He also served in several banking sector panels, including as secretary and coordinator of the Basant Seth-committee on PSU bank audit. He was also a member of the government-constituted committee on a PIL on NPAs for submission to the Supreme Court.

Earlier, a search panel headed by the cabinet secretary had interviewed candidates on May 10.

Reports suggest that some of the bankers who appeared for the interview included Jain, Uco Bank executive director Charan Singh and SBI managing directors B. Sriram and P. K. Gupta.

The search panel included the RBI governor, the financial services secretary and some independent members.

Although interviews were conducted on July 29 last year, the government decided to start the process all over again in January. The deputy governor will draw a fixed salary of Rs 2.25 lakh per month plus allowances. Earlier, the finance ministry had said that applicants for the deputy governor should have at least 15 years of experience in banking and financial market operations.