The chair of Saudi National Bank, Ammar Alkhudairy, has resigned for personal reasons after comments he made thrust the lender into the limelight amid the turmoil at Credit Suisse.
The chief executive, Saeed Al Ghamdi, will replace Alkhudairy as chair, the bank said on Monday. Talal Al Khereiji becomes acting chief executive.
Earlier this month, Alkhudairy said in a TV interview that SNB, which bought a stake just under 10% in Credit Suisse last year, would not provide any more financial assistance.
He said purchasing more shares would have pushed SNB’s stake above 10% and caused a “regulatory issue”.
His comments sent Credit Suisse’s share price into a tailspin, eventually leading to its rescue by Swiss rival UBS.
It also destroyed the value of SNB’s stake in Credit Suisse, which it acquired for around £1.3bn in November last year.