CAIRO: The chairman of the state-owned National Bank of Egypt (NBE), the country's largest bank by assets, has resigned from his post and his resignation accepted by the prime minister, the cabinet said in a statement on Saturday.

Prime Minister Hisham Kandil accepted the resignation of Tarek Amer on Saturday, the statement said. It did not explain the reasons behind the move. Amer could not immediately be reached for comment.

Amer has held the post since 2008, and was responsible for major administrative and financial restructuring of the bank during his 5-year post, the cabinet statement said.

The NBE, established in 1898, was the last of Egypt's four main state-owned banks to bring in managers from the private sector, in a reform process that began with Banque du Caire in 2000. The banks had struggled under four decades of state bureaucracy.

Amer brought in 140 new senior managers and 1,500 junior managers after he took up his position in April 2008.