The main shareholder of Credit Suisse called the created panic “unjustified”.

The president of the National Bank of Saudi Arabia, a major shareholder of Credit Suisse, said this Thursday that the “panic” created around the Swiss bank was “unfounded” and that there had never been talks between the two entities about the need to “help” the European Bank.

In an interview with CNBC in Riyadh, where the second Financial Sector Conference is taking place, the organization’s president, Ammar al-Khudairi, said the fall in the banking sector was “panic, a bit of panic.”

“I think it’s completely unjustified for Credit Suisse or for the entire market,” he said.

“If you look at how the entire banking sector collapsed, unfortunately, a lot of people were just looking for excuses,” al-Khudayri said.

The remarks come hours after Credit Suisse announced it had borrowed 50 billion Swiss francs (about $54 billion) from the Swiss central bank to “preemptively support liquidity.”

The head of Saudi Arabia’s largest commercial bank reiterated that it would not exceed the current 9.9%, which al-Khudayri said led the bank’s shares to plummet on Wednesday.

“There have been no discussions with Credit Suisse about bailouts (…) I don’t know where the word “aid” comes from, there have been no discussions since October,” he said.

Al-Khudayri added that the recent fallout from the Silicon Valley bank collapse was different from the 2008 financial crisis, and said the measures taken by US regulators to protect savers have quelled new fears of contagion.

“We had a crash last week, but this one has nothing to do with what we saw in 2008. This is an isolated case, regulators have ruled out any possibility of infection,” he said.

Credit Suisse had its darkest trading day on Wednesday after it emerged it faced credit risk, losing a quarter of its market value and pushing its shares to an all-time low of less than two Swiss francs, the lowest level in its 167-year history. .