Ammar Al Khudairy, the CEO of Saudi National Bank, Credit Suisse’s biggest shareholder, resigned just days after his comments sent the Swiss bank’s share price sharply down.
Al Khudairy, who has been the president of Saudi National Bank since 2021, is leaving for “personal reasons”. He will be replaced by CEO Saeed ohammed Al Ghamdi, the bank said in a statement on Monday.
In early March, Al Khudairy, in an interview with TV Bloomberg, said “Absolutely not” when asked if Daudi National Bank would be prepared to invest further in Credit Suisse if there was an appeal for liquidity support from the Swiss lender.
Stock market turmoil
Following this statement, Credit Suisse’s share price then fell to an all-time low and credit spreads widened.
This contributed to the fall in the prices of European banks, because investors – after the collapse of several American regional banks – avoided risky assets.
Saudi National Bank bought about 9.9 percent. of Credit Suisse last year for 1.4 billion francs.
Credit Suisse was acquired by UBS this month.
Main photo source: Faisal Al Nasser/Bloomberg via Getty Images