OREANDA-NEWS. On November 21, 2007 URALSIB Bank has confirmed Long-term Issuer Default rating (IDR) at 'B+', Short-term IDR at 'B', Individual rating at 'D', Support rating at '4' and Support Rating Floor at 'B' with Fitch Rating. The Outlook for the Long-term IDR remains Stable, reported the press-centre of URALSIB.

According to Fitch Ratings, when confirming the rating Fitch took into consideration URALSIB's nation-wide franchise, which is sizeable for a Russian privately-owned bank; strong regional diversification; low loan concentrations for the Russian market; and currently comfortable liquidity.

URALSIB was the second-largest privately-owned Russian bank by assets at end-H107. URALSIB Financial Corporation holds a 90% stake in URALSIB, and 7% is held by the government of the Bashkortostan Republic, the Russian region.

"Improvements in core earnings, and therefore stronger internal capital generation to support growth, combined with further sustainable reductions in market risk exposures could exert upward pressure on the ratings," says Vladimir Markelov, Associate Director at the Fitch's Financial Institutions team in Moscow. Downward pressure on the ratings is not expected in the near-term."