The Cabinet on Tuesday approve Prasarn Trairatvorakul, the president of Kasikornbank, as the new governor of the Bank of Thailand at its weekly meeting today.
Prasarn will replace outgoing Tarisa Wattanaket.
Earlier a Government House source told the Nation that it was most probably that Prasarn would win the top job.
Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij said yesterday he would seek Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's endorsement of his choice before proposing the name of only one candidate to the Cabinet meeting.
Earlier, Abhisit denied a media report that the coalition partners would like to have a say in the appointment of the next governor. He said he had never heard such news.
The incoming governor would replace Tarisa Watanagase when she retires in September.
The other three candidates were Thirachai Bhuvanatnara-nubala, secretary-general of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Bandid Nijthaworn, deputy governor of the Bank of Thailand, and Pisit Lee-atham, a former finance minister.
The four-way race for governor has been particularly fierce, given the strong credentials of all the candidates.
Prasarn was a central bank official before joining the Securities and Exchange Commission during its formative years.
After completing his term as the chief of the securities watchdog, he moved on to become the president of Kasikornbank. Now he also serves as chairman of the Thai Bankers' Association.
The four candidates went through a selection process conducted by a search committee chaired by Snoh Unakul, a former central bank governor. Late last month the candidates presented their vision on how they would run the monetary authority's organisation, oversee macroeconomic management, supervise financial institutions and develop the payment system.
After that Korn asked the four candidates to resubmit their presentations to crosscheck their views and evaluate their qualities.
The final selection reportedly boiled down to two candidates - Prasarn and Bandid, a bona fide insider well versed in macroeconomic and monetary policy. In the end, both Abhisit and Korn decided to go with Prasarn because he is an ideal candidate with a politically neutral stance, insight into the central bank's affairs, ideas for capital market development and also commercial banking experience.
Prasarn's successor at Kasikornbank, once he moves on to the central bank, is not known yet.
But the bank's board will meet at the end of this month to vote on the transition, with Banthoon Lamsam still at the helm as CEO.