President Sheikh Khalifa appointed Khaled Mohamed Balama Al Tameemi governor of the Central Bank of the UAE on Wednesday.
The appointment was made during a meeting of the bank's board of directors, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, the state-run WAM news agency said.
Mr Al Tameemi takes over from Abdulhamid Saeed Alahmadi.
Sheikh Mansour thanked Mr Alahmadi for his efforts "during his tenure, where he worked to absorb the negative repercussions resulting from the [coronavirus] pandemic and to ensure that the monetary and financial system in the country was not affected by the repercussions of the crisis.
"He also worked to remove many of the obstacles that were facing the banking sector, during the crisis period," Sheikh Mansour added.
The central bank also took a decision at the board meeting to extend the Targeted Economic Support Scheme (Tess), the Dh50 billion ($13.61bn) zero-cost funding programme set up a year ago to help lenders maintain funding flows through the economy following the onset of Covid-19.
Last month, the regulator said liquidity in the banking system had already returned to pre-Covid-19 levels and that banks had substantially reduced their use of Tess, with the amount being drawn down declining to Dh22bn, half of the maximum drawdown of about Dh44bn reached in Q2 2020.
The funding programme is part of local and federal support packages worth Dh388bn, the Minister of Economy Abdulla bin Touq said in December.
The board also approved "various requests from national banks and financial institutions" and issued a licence to establish a specialist bank operating according to a low-risk system, according to Wam.
Mr Al Tameemi has more than 30 years' experience in banking, financial services, asset management and investments. He was appointed deputy governor of the central bank in February to help the regulator develop, support and supervise financial institutions.
Mr Al Tameemi has worked with public and government sector entities and has been a board member of the central bank since 2008.
He graduated in 1990 with a bachelor's degree in finance from Indiana University in the US and has held the Chartered Financial Analyst professional credential since 1995.
