Financial Services Secretary Arun Ramanathan has been appointed as the Finance Secretary. "The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Arun Ramanathan as Finance Secretary," an official statement said on Tuesday.

Ramanathan takes the place of D Subbarao, who succeeded Y V Reddy as the RBI Governor.

Ramanathan will also continue to hold the post of Financial Services Secretary.

Ramanathan's appointment comes in a time when the United States financial crisis is causing ripples in many other areas of the world. Ramanathan moved as Financial Services Secretary from the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals in January this year.

He replaced Vinod Rai in Financial Services Department, who took over as the Comptroller General of India. Ramanathan belongs to the 1973-batch of IAS. He is from the Tamil Nadu cadre.