Reuters has reported Mohammed al-Jadaan, Saudi Arabia’s finance minister, to have said that he will grant a banking licence to Credit Suisse shortly.

The licence is to be granted despite the decision of Credit Suisse's CEO to boycott Saudi Arabia's "Davos in the Desert" conference last year, which others also shunned because of the demise of Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident and columnist for the Washington Post who was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 by agents of the Saudi government. Among the others who cancelled their journeys to Riyadh were Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan, and HSBC CEO John Flint.

In July, according to Islamic Business & Finance, Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam has said that in July last year he travelled to Saudi Arabia to lodge the application in person.