Economy category powered by

Saudi National Bank chair resigns, days after Credit Suisse comments sparked sell-off

Saudi National Bank Chairman Ammar al-Khudairy resigned his post on Monday, days after his comments exacerbated the share collapse of troubled bank Credit Suisse.

He will be replaced by SNB Managing Director and Group CEO Mohammed al-Ghamdi, with former deputy Talal Ahmed al-Khereiji now the new SNB acting CEO, according to a SNB statement to the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul).

Al-Khudairy is stepping down “due to personal reasons,” the bank said. Al-Khudairy’s resignation comes within days of his mid-March comments to Bloomberg that SNB was unlikely to increase its stake in Credit Suisse, at a time when the European lender battled a crisis of investor confidence that plunged its shares. The then-SNB chairman said the Saudi bank would not intercede “for many reasons outside the simplest reason, which is regulatory and statutory”.

The comments fuelled investor panic, sinking Credit Suisse shares 24% during that session, despite effectively reiterating SNB’s previous position that it did not intend to expand its holdings beyond its then 9.9% interest as Credit Suisse’s largest shareholder.

The Swiss bank was acquired by Zurich rival UBS on March 19 for 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.2 billion), in a late-weekend union brokered by the Swiss government. SNB lost roughly 80% of its investment in Credit Suisse — over $1 billion — during the takeover, as UBS paid shareholders a sharply discounted price of just 0.76 francs per share under the terms of the rescue agreement.

(Source: cnbc.com)

Read More

President Christodoulides to attend Pope Francis' funeral
‘Nicosia-Capital of Cyprus’ Initiative supports suggested traffic regulation for Makarios Avenue
Embassy of the Holy See in Cyprus to open book of condolences for late Pope
Intellectual Property: The importance of the Supreme Court's decision and the need for the establishment of a Copyright Authority
G.A.P. Vassilopoulos' documented proposal for combatting the water shortage
DreamPlay opens an office and campus in Limassol
Universal Life selects Sapiens to modernise its core systems
Egg prices up annually in EU and Cyprus to a lesser extent, according to Eurostat
Pope a devotee of peace and dialogue, President says
US stocks and dollar plunge as Trump attacks Fed chair Powell