The government on Tuesday appointed State Bank of India (SBI) managing director Swaminathan Janakiraman as the deputy-governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

An official notification said the appointment of Janakiraman is for three years from the date of joining or until further order.

A cabinet secretary-headed panel interviewed shortlisted candidates on June 1 for the post of RBI deputy-governor to replace Mahesh Kumar Jain who will be completing his extended tenure on Tuesday.

Jain took charge as the deputy-governor on June 22, 2018.

While his appointment was initially for three years, it was subsequently extended. Earlier, Jain was the managing director and chief executive officer of IDBI Bank.

One post of deputy-governor is reserved for a commercial banker.

According to the RBI Act, 1934, the central bank should have four deputy governors — two from within the ranks, one commercial banker and an economist to head the monetary policy department.

The other three deputy-governors are Michael Debabrata Patra, M. Rajeshwar Rao and T. Rabi Sankar.

According to the SBI website, Janakiraman as the managing director overlooked corporate banking and subsidiaries of the lender.

He has been with the country’s largest bank for more than three decades during which he held various assignments across corporate and international banking, retail and digital banking, finance and assurance functions.

As the managing director, he looked after large corporate and commercial credit business of the bank along with its subsidiaries.

This included major non-bank businesses such as credit cards, mutual fund, life & general insurance, capital markets and custodial services among others.