July 25 (SeeNews) - Moody's Investors Service said that it has completed a periodic review of the ratings of Bulgaria's First Investment Bank (Fibank) [BUL:5F4].
The review was conducted through a portfolio review in which Moody's reassessed the appropriateness of the lender's ratings, and a comparison of the financial and operating profile to similarly rated peers, Moody's said in a statement on Wednesday.
The publication does not announce a credit rating action and is not an indication of whether or not a credit rating action is likely in the near future, the ratings agency noted.
Moody's also said in its statement:
"First Investment Bank AD's (FIBank) B2 long-term deposit rating is driven by (1) its b3 standalone Baseline Credit Assessment (BCA); (2) no uplift under Moody's advanced Loss Given Failure (LGF) analysis; and (3) one notch of rating uplift from Moody's assumption of a moderate likelihood of support from the Government of Bulgaria (Baa2 stable), in case of need.
FIBank's b3 standalone BCA captures the bank's (1) large stock of problem loans and significant repossessed assets; (2) modest capital and the risk to capital from unprovisioned problem loans and asset revaluation; (3) relatively strong pre-provision earnings power and a recovering bottom-line profitability; (4) predominantly deposit-based funding structure and sizeable liquidity buffers; and (5) evolving corporate governance practices and key man risks.
This document summarizes Moody's view as of the publication date and will not be updated until the next periodic review announcement, which will incorporate material changes in credit circumstances (if any) during the intervening period."
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