Nurbank announces that Standard & Poor's has affirmed bank’s ratings, outlook Stable

/KASE, August 18, 2020/ – Nurbank (Almaty), whose securities are officially listed on Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE), has provided the following press release dated August 14, 2020 to KASE: quote S&P Global Ratings today affirmed its 'B-/B' long- and short-term issuer credit ratings and 'kzBB-' long-term Kazakhstan national scale rating on Nurbank JSC. The outlook is stable. The opinion of S&P Global Ratings’ experts is based on a thorough analysis of actions taken by the Bank after passing Asset Quality Review (AQR). Let us remind that as a result of the AQR Nurbank was included in the Financial Sustainability Program, which allowed the bank to place subordinated bonds worth KZT46.8 billion in April 2020, which have a maturity of 15 years. These funds are now being used by the bank to lend and support the real sector of the economy. Also in May 2020, the Bank's largest shareholder completed an additional capitalization of the Bank worth KZT20.038 billion. Taken together, this will help take necessary measures to "clear" the balance sheet, and as a result to improve the reliability and financial stability of the bank, to ensure the development and growth of the bank in accordance with the chosen strategy. In the current unpredictable market environment, it is extremely important to keep the situation under control and to maintain the Bank's reliability and stability at the previous high level. The assessment of the international rating agency is a direct proof of Nurbank's trustworthiness. We have formed large amount of additional provisions, which will allow us safely fulfill all necessary obligations to customers. The Bank's equity adequacy ratio is met, and the liquidity ratios are much higher than the regulatory standards," Eldar Sarsenov, Chairman of the Management Board of Nurbank, said. This year, the Bank plans to keep the loan portfolio (increment will be 1%) and to increase the loan portfolio by 5% in 2021 to balances at the end of 2020. The plans remain consistent improvement of the bank's competitiveness, maintaining the most comfortable conditions for customers with a focus on the development of retail business as an integral attribute of the universal bank. unquote [2020-08-18]