Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on July 25 replaced the head of Iran’s central bank with the collapse of the Iranian rial (IRR) continuing to take a heavy toll on the country’s economy.

Abdolnasser Hemmati has been named governor of the regulator, replacing Valiollah Seif, who was in the post for five years. Hemmati, 61, previously headed Central Insurance of Iran and was managing director of Bank Meli and Sina Bank.

Seif and the central bank have been heavily criticised for Iran’s handling of the currency crisis sparked by the US move to reimpose heavy sanctions on the Islamic Republic following the unilateral withdrawal of Washington from the multilateral nuclear deal in early May. Amid fast-moving events, Seif—who himself is under US sanctions on the basis of claims that he assisted the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in channelling funds to Lebanon's Hezbollah—struggled to explain to traders and investors the central bank strategy for dealing with the severe rial devaluation. Presently, one dollar is worth IRR43,776 officially but in black market trading it fetches more than twice that.

The official rate is only available to selected businesses and entities, meaning swathes of Iran’s economy are exposed to the painful unofficial rate while the Iranian authorities attempt to protect the country’s hard currency reserves.

Seif faced claims of ineptitude for failing to curb the slide of the rial, while shutting down the unofficial market, banning hard currency trading at bureaux de change.

IRNA news agency reported Rouhani as saying that Hemmati is an educated, well-informed, experienced and capable banker and insurer. The president called for further reform of the banking system and financial and monetary policies, as well as the further enhancement of banking relations with other countries.