OREANDA-NEWS. On October 29, 2008 Moody's Investors Service has assigned first-time B2 long-term and Not Prime short-term local currency deposit ratings and an E+ Bank Financial Strength Rating (BFSR) to Open Joint-Stock Commercial Bank "Credit-Standard" (BCS). The outlook on all the ratings is stable.

The E+ BFSR reflects BCS's relatively strong for Uzbek banks corporate governance and risk management standards and sound financial fundamentals to date. However, BCS's rating is constrained by the bank's limited franchise both in retail and corporate segments as well as high dependence on a handful of names in customer funding together with hefty credit risk concentrations and overall insufficiently stable operating environment in Uzbekistan.

In Moody's view, BCS would be unlikely to receive support from either the Uzbek authorities or the bank's shareholders in case of need. Therefore, the deposit ratings assigned to the bank do not incorporate any expectation of external support and are mapped to a B2 baseline credit assessment (BCA), a measure of its intrinsic financial strength.

Moody's believes the bank's ratings have limited upside potential in the near term. However, BCS's BFSR could be upgraded if the bank succeeded in developing its franchise in both the retail and corporate segments, as well as diversified its activities and funding base.

For the rating to be upgraded, we would also expect the bank to maintain its healthy profitability, efficiency and asset quality indicators, including substantially decreasing funding concentration. A failure to achieve its development strategy, along with material deterioration in profitability or the capital adequacy level would likely result in a downgrade of the bank's BFSR and, as a result, its deposit ratings.

BCS is headquartered in Tashkent, Uzbekistan and reported total IFRS assets of UZS218 billion (USD169 million) and net income of UZS6.2 billion (USD4.8 million) for the year ending 31 December 2007.