British Prime Minister Boris Johnson named former interior minister Sajid Javid to take over from Philip Hammond as finance minister in his first cabinet appointment.
Javid, thereby, has become Britain's first ethnic minority finance minister.
The former banker from a modest background was a contender for the premiership but endorsed Johnson when he failed to get enough support from fellow Conservative MPs.
The 49-year-old is the son of Pakistani Muslim immigrant parents. He became a vice president at US Chase Manhattan Bank at the age of 25 and a minister just four years after entering parliament.
Sajid Javid, a Reuters report says, will now have to manage the economy at a time when it could be abruptly wrenched out of the European Union, pick the next Bank of England Governor and protect London's position as one of the world's top two finance centres.