UPDATE 1-Amir Yaron chosen as Bank of Israel governor -Israeli news site

Israeli finance professor Amir Yaron has been chosen as Bank of Israel governor, the Israel Television News Company said on Tuesday, an hour before an official appointment was to be announced.

Yaron is a finance professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. His research interests include asset pricing, macro-finance and applied time series economics, according to the university website.

He received a doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1994.

In a 2015 research paper, he wrote that the net effects of investor uncertainty are greater than previously thought, and that they are not always bad.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon were due to formally name the next central bank chief at 1045 GMT. The candidate picked will still need the approval of an appointments committee.

A spokesman for Netanyahu declined to comment, as did the Finance Ministry.

The new bank chief will replace Karnit Flug, whose term ends next month. Flug, who opted not to seek a second five-year term, has had a number of disagreements with Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon over the past three years, mainly over fiscal policy and Kahlon's preference for lowering taxes. (Reporting by Maayan Lubell; Additional reporting by Steven Scheer and Tova Cohen; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

(With inputs from agencies.)