A government committee led by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel has recommended three candidates for the position of governor of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the country’s central bank.

The meeting of the recommendation committee held on Tuesday finalised Biswo Poudel, Neelam Dhungana Timilsina, and Dinesh Bhattarai as nominees. The final decision on the appointment is now expected from the ongoing cabinet meeting, which is set to pick one of the three candidates for the top post.

The recommendation follows weeks of political deadlock between ruling coalition partners, Nepali Congress and CPN-UML, over who should lead the central bank. Amid the stalemate, Minister Paudel convened the committee meeting on Tuesday to move the process forward.

A new recommendation committee was formed last week after two members of the previous committee resigned. The restructured body includes former NRB governor Maha Prasad Adhikari and economist Posh Raj Pandey as members, alongside Finance Minister Paudel as the chair. Pandey replaced Biswo Poudel, who had earlier resigned from the committee amid speculation he would be nominated for the governor role.

The appointment process has faced delays since outgoing governor Maha Prasad Adhikari retired on April 6. The original recommendation committee, formed on March 24, failed to convene for weeks, leading to the resignation of former governor Bijay Nath Bhattarai, who cited the committee’s inaction as the reason for stepping down.

According to the Bank and Financial Institutions Act (BAFIA), the recommendation committee must propose candidates and the cabinet is responsible for appointing the central bank governor at least a month before the incumbent’s term expires.