THE GOVERNMENT has appointed an internal candidate, head of banking John Moran, as the secretary general of the Department of Finance, replacing Kevin Cardiff.

A solicitor by training, Mr Moran has been promoted to the top job at the department and one of the most influential civil servant positions with less than two years’ experience in the public service.

Since taking over as head of banking following the election of the Fine Gael-Labour Government last March, Mr Moran has overseen last year’s recapitalisation of the banks, the merger of Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide, and AIB’s takeover of EBS.

Mr Moran will be paid the €200,000 pay cap applied to senior civil servants. There were 21 candidates for the job.

He was responsible for developing the banking division within the department, which brought in the National Treasury Management Agency banking team, led by Michael Torpey, on secondment to the department last year.

Mr Moran led the negotiations for the State on the sale of a stake in Bank of Ireland to private North American investors for €1.1 billion last summer that led to the lender avoiding Government control, the only Irish bank to remain outside majority State ownership.

He has also worked on the draft personal insolvency legislation and has represented Ireland at EU-level discussions at financial stability meetings, presentations to investors and at conferences.

Prior to joining the department, Mr Moran worked as head of wholesale banking supervision in the Central Bank and as chief executive and a board member of financial firm Zurich Capital Markets.

The role of secretary general became vacant when the Government appointed Mr Cardiff to the European Court of Auditors.