The Central Bank has appointed Cyril Roux as its deputy governor and director of financial regulation.
Mr Roux will be responsible for all regulatory activities at the Central Bank and will take up his position on October 1.
He replaces Matthew Elderfield, who is taking up a new job at Lloyds Banking Group.
Mr Roux is currently the First Deputy Secretary General of the French prudential supervisory authority for banks and insurance companies.
He also previously worked at AXA and at the French Treasury.
''I am pleased to welcome Cyril Roux to the Central Bank,'' commented the bank's Governor Professor Patrick Honohan in a statement.
''His very extensive relevant experience and skills are particularly suited to this challenging role. I look forward to working with him, along with the rest of the regulatory team, as we continue to develop the financial regulatory system in Ireland,'' he added.
Mr Roux will take over a financial regulator position that has been significantly strengthened since a wave of property lending led to the collapse of the Irish banking system and a 2010 EU-IMF bailout. But he faces a growing mortgage arrears crisis, with almost one in five Irish home loans not being fully repaid.
Next year he will help oversee the first stress tests of Ireland's banks in three years to see whether the state will need to top up its €64 billion bailout, equivalent to 40% of the country's annual economic output.
Finance Minister Michael Noonan has welcomed the appointment.
''His appointment comes at an important juncture in the process of comprehensively restructuring Ireland’s regulatory landscape with the introduction of important new regulatory powers for the Central Bank through the recent enactment of the Central Bank (Supervision and Enforcement) Act 2013,'' the Minister said in a statement.
