Alex Thursby has stepped down as group chief executive of National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) after three years in the role, the bank has confirmed.
Abhijit Choudhury, NBAD’s group chief risk officer, has been appointed as acting chief executive with immediate effect.
Khalifa Sultan Al Suwaidi, who is currently a member of NBAD’s board of directors, will take on the newly created position of managing director “to support the bank through the integration planning process” until its merger with FGB is complete.
The boards of the two Abu Dhabi banks last month unanimously voted to recommend to their shareholders the merger which will create a lender with $175 billion in assets, the largest in the Middle East.
Abdulhamid Saeed, currently board member and managing director of FGB, is to be the chief executive for the combined bank.
Mr Thursby said that he has left NBAD “in a very strong position to make a success of the merger and thrive in an increasingly competitive landscape”.
He added: “With the planning for NBAD’s integration with FGB now underway, I believe this is the right moment to hand over the reins to Abhijit Choudhury and a senior team that will plan for the merger.
“I feel strongly that it is important from now, that there is alignment between the decisions being taken during integration planning, and implementation of these decisions after the merger is legally completed.”
NBAD said in a statement that Mr Choudhury will work closely with deputy group chief executive Abdulla AbdulRaheem to lead the bank until the completion of the proposed merger, which is scheduled for the first quarter of 2017.
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