Bank Albilad has appointed Bashaar Yahya Al Qunaibit as its new Chief Executive Officer, part of a board-level leadership transition at one of Saudi Arabia’s largest Shariah-compliant lenders. The appointment took effect on 1 June 2026.
Bashaar Yahya Al Qunaibit was previously Senior Executive Vice President for Business at the bank, where he has built a career spanning 25 years in the financial services sector. He brings direct experience of Bank Albilad’s commercial operations to the chief executive role at a time when Saudi lenders are competing to fund the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 investment programme.
Al Qunaibit succeeds Abdulaziz Mohammed Al Onaizan, who led the bank as Chief Executive Officer and now moves into a non-executive capacity. Al Onaizan has been appointed Chairman of the Board, effective 1 June 2026, and will serve until the end of the current board term on 16 April 2028. His move to the chairmanship keeps a long-serving figure at the centre of the bank’s strategy while handing day-to-day management to a new chief executive.
The reshuffle also changes the leadership of the board itself. Nasser Mohammed Al Subaie has stepped down as Chairman, effective 1 June 2026. He will remain a member of the Board and of the Executive Committee until 16 April 2028, preserving continuity through the remainder of the current term.
Bank Albilad is a Shariah-compliant bank listed on the Saudi Exchange, offering retail, corporate and investment banking services through a nationwide branch and digital network. The lender has expanded its consumer finance and payments businesses in recent years, positioning itself among the more actively traded banking names on the Saudi market.
The orderly handover, with the outgoing chief executive elevated to chairman and the former chairman retained on the board, signals a transition designed for stability rather than a change of direction. Al Qunaibit inherits a franchise focused on growth in lending, digital banking and fee income as competition among Saudi banks intensifies.
The appointment of an internal candidate to the top job reflects a broader pattern across Saudi Arabia’s banking sector, where lenders have leaned on executives with deep institutional knowledge to steer through a period of rapid balance-sheet growth and heavy investment in digital services. For Bank Albilad, promoting its head of business to chief executive keeps strategic continuity intact while renewing the leadership team, as the outgoing chief executive assumes the chairmanship and the previous chairman remains available to the board through the current term.
