Saudi National Bank, which was the largest shareholder in Credit Suisse, named a new chairman on Monday following the former head's resignation weeks after comments he made helped propel the plunge of the beleaguered Swiss bank's share price.
Ammar Al Khudairy resigned as chairman of SNB due to "personal reasons," according to a statement from the bank. Current CEO Saeed Mohammed Al Ghamdi will take over as the new chairman on March 27, with deputy CEO Talal Ahmed Al Khereiji filling his place.
This change will take place about two weeks after Khudairy said SNB, Saudi Arabia’s biggest bank by assets, would not buy more shares of Credit Suisse on regulatory grounds.
“Absolutely not, for many reasons,” Khudairy told Bloomberg at a March 15 conference in Saudi Arabia. “I’ll cite the simplest reason, which is regulatory and statutory. We now own 9.8% of the bank. If we go above 10%, all kinds of new rules kick in — whether it be by our regulator or the European regulator or the Swiss regulator, we’re not inclined to get into a new regulatory regime.”
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