Saudi National Bank chair Ammar al-Khudairy puts down his papers after Credit Suisse storm

The chairman of Saudi National Bank resigned for personal reasons after his comments on Credit Suisse sent that firm's stock cratering, a regulatory filing in Saudi Arabia said on Monday.

The filing on Riyadh's Tadawul stock exchange announced Ammar al-Khudairy's resignation from Saudi National Bank.

It dated his resignation as coming on Sunday.

Al-Khudairy was the one whose announcement of pulling the plug on Credit Suisse on March 15 triggered the banking crisis in Europe.

He had said that the Saudi National Bank would not provide more money to the Swiss lender. Shares of Credit Suisse had slid 24% in a session after Al-Khudairy made his comments. 

The news of a sudden downturn at Credit Suisse created panic among account holders.

However, hours later, Switzerland's central bank came to Credit Suisse's rescue and agreed to lend the bank up to 50 billion francs ($54 billion) to shore up its finances.

Swiss authorities later cut a deal with its bigger rival UBS to acquire troubled Credit Suisse at a marked-down price.

(With inputs from PTI)