OREANDA-NEWS. March 19, 2010. Credit-Rating, a nationally recognized credit rating agency in Ukraine has announced that it affirmed at uaAA the long-term credit rating assigned to Kiev-based Swedbank JSC (public). The outlook on the rating has been changed to negative from stable. Credit-Rating has also affirmed the Swedbank’s bank deposit rating at ‘5’ (the highest strength).

The change in bank’s rating outlook was triggered by eroding quality of bank’s assets, which prompted losses due to reserve allocations for asset transactions. The rating is underpinned by bank’s availability of backing from its shareholders< including anticipated augmentation of the bank’s authorized stock by UAH3.3bn, which will allow to decrease negative impact of eroding asset quality on capitalization ratios. Credit-Rating notes bank’s sufficient liquidity ratios, which resulted in affirmation of the institution’s bank deposit rating at ‘5’ (the highest strength).

An obligor or a debt liability with uaAA credit rating is characterized with the VERY STRONG creditworthiness as compared to other Ukrainian obligors or debt liabilities.

Negative outlook indicates that there is a possibility to downgrade the rating in the course of the year, on condition that negative tendencies are retained and current risks are realized.

The BDR of ‘5’ (the highest strength) denotes that the bank is reliable with its vulnerability to adverse commercial, financial and economic factors being low. The probability of bank's failure to return deposits is extremely low.