Update | Chongqing mayor Huang Qifan tipped to become China’s finance tsar

Chongqing mayor Huang Qifan has been hand picked by President Xi Jinping as the man to streamline China’s chaotic financial markets, with a source close to the mainland’s top financial regulator saying the decision would “significantly” change the current direction of policy.

“The appointment of Huang to take a role overseeing China’s financial markets came down from President Xi Jinping directly,” the source said. “Huang has a profound understanding of China’s financial system as well as the real economy.”

Reuters reported on Wednesday that Huang was tipped to replace Yang Jing, 62, as secretary general of the State Council, China’s cabinet. The secretary general holds a state-level position, which is above minister-level, and assists Premier Li Keqiang on central government operations.

Huang, 63, made his name as a rising political star from China’s financial hub Shanghai, and is renowned for his financial acumen, although he has never held a position in a bank or other financial institution, choosing instead to remain in government.

He is also a political survivor, having prospered after the 2012 fall of his former boss, Bo Xilai, then Chongqing Communist Party secretary and a member of the party’s decision-making Politburo.

A source close to the Chongqing government told the South China Morning Post Huang would assume a new role with the central government in Beijing, but it remained to be seen whether he would become the secretary general of the State Council.

“There will soon be a government conference at which Huang’s new role will be announced to the senior Chongqing officials,” he said. “He was still in town in the past few days, but could fly to Beijing very soon.”