The Saudi National Bank joined Credit Suisse in 2022.
(Photo: IMAGO/NurPhoto)
new York The Credit Suisse crisis has had its first consequences in terms of personnel. However, it is not the Swiss bank itself that is affected, but its largest shareholder. Saudi National Bank President Ammar Al Khudairy has resigned. He will be replaced by the bank’s CEO, Saeed Mohammed Al Ghamdi. The bank announced this on Monday.
Al Khudairy’s comments recently contributed to a massive slump in Credit Suisse shares. In an interview with Bloomberg TV almost two weeks ago, when asked whether the Saudi National Bank would put further capital into Credit Suisse, Al Khudairy replied: “Absolutely not.”
The Swiss bank then crashed at an unprecedented rate, and attempts by the Saudis to put the comments into perspective came to nothing. At the end of the same week, UBS announced that it would take over Credit Suisse with the support of the Swiss National Bank.
The Saudi National Bank, which is 37 percent owned by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, joined as part of the capital increase at the end of last year. Despite its catchy name, the institute is not the central bank of the Gulf Kingdom, but a commercial bank. She paid around CHF 1.4 billion for her 9.9 percent stake in Credit Suisse.
More: How it came to the deep fall of Credit Suisse