Biggest UAE Bank Taps Bin Tarraf to Replace Departing COO
Biggest UAE Bank Taps Bin Tarraf to Replace Departing COO
(Bloomberg) -- First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC has appointed Suhail Bin Tarraf to the role of group chief operating officer, according to people familiar with the matter, in one of the most important personnel choices made by the new head of the biggest lender in the United Arab Emirates.
Bin Tarraf, who served as chief operations officer at Dubai-based Emirates Islamic Bank, will be partially replacing Fadel Al Ali, said the people, who asked not to be named because the matter isn’t public. Al Ali, who was about to leave the bank late last year, held the additional role of deputy chief executive officer.
FAB, as the Abu Dhabi bank is known, and Emirates Islamic Bank didn’t respond to requests for comment.
In the nearly one year since Hana Al Rostamani took over as group CEO, FAB has embarked on a broad management overhaul that’s led to the departures of several executives in the private bank and investment banking division, Bloomberg News reported in September. The bank has won mandates last year on several high-profile transactions across the Gulf during a flurry of dealmaking and initial public offerings in the region.
Formed from the merger of National Bank of Abu Dhabi and First Gulf Bank in 2017, FAB is half owned by sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Co. and members of the emirate’s ruling family.
It benefits from its close links to the Abu Dhabi government, with state and public-sector companies maintaining large accounts with the bank. FAB’s total assets reached 983 billion dirhams ($268 billion) at the end of the third quarter, rising 7% in the year to date.
The bank had scheduled a strategy day for analysts and investors in November, but the event was postponed to the first quarter of this year due “to unavoidable logistical challenges,” according to a spokeswoman for FAB.
Bin Tarraf worked at Emirates Islamic Bank for five years and was the CEO at Tanfeeth, a subsidiary of Emirates NBD that handles back-office operations, according to his LinkedIn profile.
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