BNF Bank is navigating a significant boardroom transition after its annual general meeting, with chairman Michael Frendo stepping down after 13 years in the role alongside four fellow directors.

Frendo, a former Speaker of the Maltese House of Representatives and Nationalist Party minister, retired as both chairman and director. Also departing are Sheikh Turki Feisal Q.F. Al-Thani, Sheikh Mohammed Feisal Q.F. Al-Thani, Hassan Elsayed Hassan Abdalla and Paul Mark Johnson, none of whom were reappointed. Seven other retiring directors were confirmed back into their positions at the same meeting.

The bank said a new chairman will be named at its first available board meeting, offering no further detail on timing or candidates.

Joining the board is British national Izzat Nuseibeh, nominated as non-executive director subject to regulatory approval. BNF described him as a seasoned international banking executive with more than four decades of experience across corporate, private and institutional banking in the Middle East and Europe, having held senior roles at BLOM Bank Qatar, Barclays Bank, Credit Suisse, Bankers Trust and Deutsche Bank.

The boardroom shake-up follows the appointment of Shoua Liu as chief operating officer less than a week earlier, suggesting a broader period of leadership renewal at the Maltese lender.

The AGM also approved a net dividend of just over €1.3 million, equivalent to €0.013 per nominal share.

On the financial side, the bank reported total assets of almost €1.37 billion at the close of 2025. Loans and customer advances represented roughly three-quarters of that figure, with retail lending at €641.4 million and corporate lending steady at €263.5 million. Net international lending grew around 14 per cent to just under €122 million. The bank also deepened its ties with online deposit platforms during the year to draw euro and sterling retail deposits from Germany and the United Kingdom respectively.

The changes come as BNF continues to move past a turbulent system upgrade last year that temporarily locked some customers out of accounts and disrupted payments. The remediation cost exceeded €1 million and two senior executives subsequently left the organisation, with BNF maintaining those departures were unrelated to the incident.

BNF Bank is majority owned by JUD Investment Group, a subsidiary of Al Faisal International for Investment, one of Qatar’s largest private conglomerates, which holds a 92.4 per cent stake. The remaining shares are split between four Maltese shareholders.