Former People's Bank of China (PBOC) Governor Dai Xianglong has been named head of China's $70 billion national social security fund.

Dai replaces Xiang Huaicheng, a former finance minister. A brief statement from the fund on Wednesday did not say what new post, if any, Xiang was taking up.

Dai was governor of the People's Bank of China from June 1995 to December 2002. He then became mayor of the northern port city of Tianjin, where he championed the municipality's Binhai New Area as a testing ground for China's financial reforms.