On Monday, the Saudi National Bank (SNB) announced that its chairman, Ammar Al Khudairy, has left his position. The resignation of the former head of Saudi Arabia’s largest lender, said officially to be due to “personal reasons,” came days after he made an offhanded comment which was credited with triggering a collapse in the share price of Switzerland’s second largest bank, Credit Suisse.

In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Al Khudairy was asked if the SNB would be open to supplying Credit Suisse with additional capital, to which he responded, “The answer is absolutely not, for many reasons outside the simplest reason which is regulatory and statutory.”

Credit Suisse had asked SNB to supply it with additional capital, however SNB had refused, noting that owning more than 10% of the Swiss lender would have raised a “regulatory issue” with the Saudi government.

Following the banker’s statement, shares of Credit Suisse plunged to their lowest level on record, sending the global banking sector into a tailspin, amid heightened tensions following the failures of three other US lenders.

Credit Suisse nearly collapsed itself, saved only by a government intervention, brokering a deal for its acquisition by larger rival UBS.

Credit Suisse had been plagued by a series of scandals and regulatory issues, as well as record outflows since last year, however Al Khudiary’s statement exacerbated the loss of confidence in the bank, and hastened its downfall.

The fall of Credit Suisse, which has plummeted by roughly $1 billion in a matter of months, has generated significant losses for SNB, which is 37% owned by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund.

Since the start of the turmoil the Saudi National Bank itself has lost over $26 billion in market value.