Halyk Savings Bank of Kazakhstan confidently passes Asset Quality Review (AQR), initiated by National Bank of Republic of Kazakhstan

/KASE, February 28, 2020/ – Halyk Savings Bank of Kazakhstan (Almaty), whose securities are officially listed on Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE), has provided KASE with the following press release of February 28, 2020: quote Halyk Bank (the "Bank") has confidently passed the Asset Quality Review initiated by the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan (the "National Bank"). The Bank's asset quality is confirmed by the results of AQR provided by the National Bank. Despite the fact that approaches applied for the review were highly conservative, the findings will not affect the capital adequacy and financial performance of the Bank. The AQR results once again reaffirm the appropriateness of Bank's development and growth strategy, and objectively reflect the position of the Bank in the banking sector of Kazakhstan as a reliable and strong partner for its customers. International rating agencies also highly appreciate the Bank's position in terms of balance sheet quality. On 4 December 2019 the international rating agency Fitch Ratings upgraded the Long-Term Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) of Bank to "BB +" from "BB" with Positive outlook. The Bank's intrinsic financial strength rating (Viability Rating) was also upgraded to "bb +", which is the highest in the banking sector of Kazakhstan. The financial strength rating reflects the Bank's rating excluding external support (on a solo basis). The upgrade of the rating of the Bank was driven by a reduction of net problem assets relative to capital. The Positive Outlook on Bank's ratings reflects Fitch's expectations that the ratio of problem assets relative to capital should reduce further in the midterm, due to moderate additional provisioning, further capital built-up, potential collateral sales and some loan recoveries. Rating also reflects the Bank's dominant market shares, its conservative risk appetite and management, and favorable asset structure. unquote [2020-02-28]