Moody's raises long-term foreign currency deposit rating of Bank CenterCredit to Ba1

/Kazakhstan today, May 31, 04/ - International ratings agency Moody's Investors Service has upgraded from Ba1 to Ba2 long-term foreign currency deposit rating of Kazakhstan's Bank CenterCredit (BCC) and improved its outlook on bank's financial strength from stable to positive. The Ba1 long-term foreign currency deposit rating carries a stable outlook, bank's PR department told KZ-today. According to Moody's, the Ba1 deposit rating incorporates limited support from the Kazakhstani authorities, should the need arise. BCC was the fifth-largest bank with a significant market share in banking assets, and the fourth-largest collector of customer deposits as of year-end 2003. The original statement released by the agency says that "the positive outlook on BCC's D- FSR reflects (i) a gradually strengthening franchise as a result of the bank's expansion into retail and more active work with small and medium-sized companies; (ii) improving profitability despite gradually shrinking interest margins; (iii) good asset quality despite rapid growth in lending; (iv) improving capitalisation ratios; and (v) prevailing relatively good client diversification on both sides of the bank's balance sheet". BCC net earnings in the first quarter of 2004 reached KZT566 million and rose 3.6 times relative to a corresponding period of 2003. Its return-on-assets ratio (ROA) turned out to be the best among top 10 Kazakhstan banks. As at April 1, 2004 the Bank had assets of KZT95 bn (growth of 15%) and shareholders' equity valued at KZT11.8 bn (10.2%). The Bank operates 19 branches and 78 cash-settlement offices throughout Kazakhstan. [2004-05-31]