The Centre on Tuesday named bureaucrat Rajiv Kumar the new finance secretary. Earlier, he was the secretary in the Department of Financial Services in the Ministry of Finance.

The appointment was confirmed by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A finance secretary is the senior-most bureaucrat among the ministry’s five departments – economic affairs, revenue, expenditure, financial services and department of investment and public asset management.

Kumar is a 1984 batch IAS officer from the Jharkhand cadre. Before joining the Ministry of Finance, he was the establishment officer in the Department of Personnel and Training.

Kumar has undertaken several reforms in the banking sector, and provided a record capital infusion in the public sector banks. Over Rs 3 lakh crore has been infused in the banking sector since 2015-’16 to tackle bad loans. He also played a vital role in the government’s flagship schemes like Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, Mudra loan scheme, the 59-minute loan scheme for the MSME sector, according to Mint.

Kumar will succeed bureaucrat Subhash Chandra Garg. Garg, who was also the economic affairs secretary, was transferred to the power ministry on July 24. A day later, he said he has applied for voluntary retirement from the Indian Administrative Service.