The Central Bank's assistant director general, Mr Liam O'Reilly, has been appointed chief executive of the new financial services regulatory authority.

The Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority (IFSRA) has been set up on an interim basis and will be formally established early next year.

Mr O'Reilly has been the Bank's assistant director general since 1998 with responsibility for all its financial supervision functions. He previously held the positions of manager of the Central Bank's financial control and settlements department, its markets department and the international relations department. The new authority's chief executive is a member of the ECB banking supervision committee, the EU banking advisory committee, the committee of European securities regulators and the international organisation for securities commissioners.

He was a member of the review group on auditing set up by the Tánaiste, Ms Harney in 2000 which led to the establishment of the interim board of the Irish Accountancy and Auditing Supervisory Authority. Mr O'Reilly holds an MSc degree in economics and statistics and a PhD in econometrics from Trinity College Dublin.

He is looking forward to this new challenge.