OREANDA-NEWS. National Rating Agency has affirmed its national scale ‘A+’ credit rating on GAZBANK JSC JSCB. NRA’s national scale ‘A+’ credit rating was assigned to GAZBANK on Oct 6, 2009 and was reaffirmed each consecutive year.

The rating is underpinned by GAZBANK’s strong liquidity position (the liquidity ratios remain comfortably above the regulatory minima, and the low-risk trading portfolio can be used as an additional source of liquidity) and its comfortable capital adequacy ratio (14.24% as of Nov. 1, 2015). NRA also notes that the bank managed to reduce its delinquency rate after paying off its overdue debt with cash and realized collateral.

The credit rating score is constrained by the single-name concentration of GAZBANK’s loan book (with 20 top borrowers accounting for 60% of total loans), growing proportion of loans in the IV-V risk categories (12.07% of total loans and equivalent receivables), the bank’s increasing reliance on rail deposits, combined with the falling corporate deposit balances, low current profitability metrics (ROA=0.34%, ROE=2.46% for the nine months ended Sep. 30, 2015) and its high equity immobilization ratio.

NRA’s analytical products, including ratings and the contents of this press release, are statements of NRA’s independent opinion as of the date they are expressed and not statements of fact or recommendations to make any investment decisions or conduct any stock market transactions. NRA is not responsible for any results obtained from the use of opinions and/or information contained in this press release.

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