OREANDA-NEWS. July 04, 2012. Standard & Poor’s Services raised B&N Bank’s long-term counterparty credit rating to “B” from “B-” and the short-term counterparty credit rating to “B” from “C” with “Stable” outlook. At the same time, S&P raised the Russia national scale rating to “ruA-” from “ruBBB+”, reported the press-centre of B&N Bank.
 
According to S&P, the rating actions reflect the revision of B&N Bank’s risk position to “moderate” from “weak” due to the Bank’s ability to reduce single-name and industry concentrations of the loan book over the next two years. This anticipation is underpinned by substantial reduction of industry concentration from 45% in 2010 to 34% in 2011, expected decline of the single-name concentration by the end of 2012, and further improvement of the risk position deriving from the new business strategy (focused on lending to SMEs).

Among other positive triggers for rating actions S&P mentioned the “average” funding and “adequate” liquidity cushion (20% of the total assets), which underpinned the raising of the short-term rating.

The stable outlook reflects S&P’s expectation that the Bank will maintain a positive financial performance, improve its risk position within the next 12-18 months, generate adequate revenues to maintain its capitalization and implement its business strategy successfully.