The eventful life of Khalid bin Mahfouz

Few Saudis outside the ruling family have merited an obituary in The New York Times, but -lived a controversial life and was a participant in extraordinary events in the Arab world.

Khalid, who died on August 16 in Jeddah after a long illness, was born into wealth and power as the heir to Saudi Arabia’s biggest financial institution, the National Commercial Bank (NCB). For 30 years he oversaw NCB’s development as a modern, global finance house.

But ultimately he surrendered his family’s control of NCB.
Khalid lived through, and was directly touched by, events of huge international significance: the oil shock of 1973 and subsequent sharp rise in crude prices; Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990; the scandal-ridden collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) in 1991; and al Qa’eda’s attacks on America in 2001.