CAIRO, Feb 28 (Aswat Masriya) - Former governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) Hisham Ramez was appointed as vice-president and managing director of the Commercial International Bank (CIB), the latter said on Sunday.    

The CIB, Egypt's largest listed lender by market value, said in a statement to the Egyptian stock exchange that Ramez will oversee the "overall business of the bank" and will manage the "day-to-day operations." Meanwhile, the bank's chairman, Hesham Ezz al-Arab will focus on strategic issues and will oversee the bank's regulatory functions. 

Ramez was appointed as the governor of the CBE on Feb. 3, 2013 and led the bank through multiple depreciations of the Egyptian pound. When Ramez took over, the Egyptian pound was changing hands at 6.5 to the dollar but when he resigned, the pound had been trading at state auction for 7.93 against the dollar. 

Ramez tendered his resignation in October, about a month before his tenure was set to expire and started an open-ended leave, two-weeks ahead of vacating his position. On the same day that Ramez handed in his resignation, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi assigned the former head of the National Bank of Egypt Tarek Amer to take the position for four years.

The CIB said it is welcoming back Ramez, who had served as a managing director in the bank before taking over the state's central bank. 

Years of political turmoil led to a drop by more than a half of Egypt's foreign reserves in the years following the popular uprising in January 2011, which ended the rule of president Hosni Mubarak. The instability that ensued has taken a toll on tourism and investments, which were previously among the main sources of foreign currency for Egypt.