TEHRAN – Iranian cabinet appointed Akbar Komijani, the former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), as the bank’s new governor, Mahmoud Vaezi, the president's chief of staff announced.

According to Vaezi, Komijani will replace CBI’s former governor Abdolnasser Hemmati in just more than two months remaining from the incumbent government’s second term in office.

President Hassan Rouhani had dismissed Hemmati due to his decision to launch a presidential election campaign for the June 18 votes.

According to the CBI laws and regulations, the bank cannot be run by an acting governor so the cabinet has agreed that Komijani would take over all responsibilities and powers of the CBI governor until mid-August when the current government is expected to leave office. 

Komijani, a graduate of economics from the U.S. and a lecturer at the University of Tehran, has served as the CBI deputy governor for the past seven years. The banker has held other senior positions in the CBI, including deputy for economic affairs on two occasions from 1998 to 2007 and from 2013 to 2014.

Hemmati led the CBI through one of the most complicated financial periods for Iran since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

EF/MA