New Delhi: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor Viral Acharya, who was in-charge of the Monetary Policy Department, has resigned six months before the scheduled end of his term, according to sources today.

This is the second high profile resignation in the past six month at the RBI. In December, RBI Governor Urjit Patel resigned nearly nine months before the end of his schedule term over differences with the government.

Acharya had put in his papers a few weeks before the last meeting of RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) that was held on June 6, sources said.

Acharya had joined the Central Bank on Jan. 23, 2017 after Patel was elevated to the post of Governor in September 2016. Acharya was in charge of the Financial Stability Unit, Monetary Policy Department, Department of Economic and Policy Research, Financial Markets Operation Department, Financial Market Regulation Department, among others at the RBI.

Acharya, a New York University Economics Professor, who once called himself the ‘poor man’s Raghuram Rajan’, was appointed for three years.

The RBI is now left with three Deputy Governors N.S. Vishwanathan, B.P. Kanungo and M.K. Jain. N.S. Vishwanathan, whose term is due to end in the first week of July is likely to stay back for another two-year term. The process for finding Vishwanathan’s successor has been put on hold.

He took over at a time when the Central Bank was facing criticism for repeated changes in the rules related to deposit and withdrawal of money, post-demonetisation.