OREANDA-NEWS. National Rating Agency has assigned a negative outlook to FIA-Bank JSC's national scale credit rating, which has been affirmed at 'BBB'.

The negative outlook reflects FIA-Bank's reduced capital adequacy ratio and failure to respond to this problem adequately, in accordance with previous assertions. Our assessment of the bank's financial condition is also constrained by insufficient current liquidity - a problem associated with large short-term repo borrowings from the Central Bank of Russia (CBR). Additionally, we note the persistently low sector diversification of the bank's loan book and the related risks.

FIA-Bank Joint-Stock Company (CBR's general banking license # 2542, licenses to take and place deposits in the form of precious metals, Deposit Insurance System membership) was founded in Engels, Saratov Oblast, on Oct. 25, 1993. In January 1997, the bank's head office was relocated to Togliatti, a large industrial and economic center of Samara Oblast. FIA-Bank's current shareholders are Alexander S. Nosorev, chairman of the supervisory board (80% of the bank's common shares) and the Sweden-based East Capital Financials Fund AB (20%).