OREANDA-NEWS. September 22, 2009. Moody's Investors Service has withdrawn all ratings of Kazakhstan's Temirbank, reported the press-centre of KASE.

Temirbank's E BFSR, C senior unsecured debt and issuer ratings and Not-Prime short-term ratings had stable outlooks prior to the rating withdrawal, while long-term Caa3 local and foreign currency deposit ratings had developing outlooks. The ratings have been withdrawn because Moody's believes it lacks adequate information to maintain the ratings. Please refer to Moody's Withdrawal Policy on moodys.com.

Temirbank's public debt, rated by Moody's at the time of the withdrawal, remains outstanding in the amount of US800 million. Moody's commented that it was not able to continue maintaining its ratings in this particular situation based on publicly available information after the issuer's official request to withdraw the ratings. Moody's view on the lack of adequate information concerns particularly the asset quality and recapitalisation plans of Temirbank. Given the bank's currently distressed capital position arising from a significant and still increasing volume of non-performing loans, Moody's believes that the lack of relevant information on the performance of the bank's assets does not allow the rating agency to make reasonable estimations on the recovery value of the bank's non-performing loans that account for a large proportion of the bank's loan book.

Moody's C debt rating and its E BFSR rating before today's rating withdrawal were Moody's lowest possible rating levels in the respective categories. Furthermore, the agency lacks information with regards to particular plans on possible recapitalization and public debt restructuring which was previously announced by its shareholder BTA Bank. Therefore, the rating agency is not in a position to maintain ratings of Temirbank in the foreseeable future.

Moody's will no longer maintain rating coverage or publish research on these public debts and/or the issuer ratings for Temirbank due to the lack of information.

Moody's most recent rating action on Temirbank was taken on 30 July 2009 when the rating agency downgraded the company's issuer and debt ratings to C from Ca with a stable outlook and assigned developing outlooks to Temirbank's Caa3 local and foreign currency deposit ratings.

The principal methodology used in rating Temirbank was Moody's "Bank Financial Strength Ratings: Global Methodology" and "Incorporation of Joint-Default Analysis into Moody's Bank Ratings: A Refined Methodology", published in February 2007 and available on www.moodys.com in the Rating Methodologies sub-directory under the Research & Ratings tab. Other methodologies and factors that may have been considered in the process of rating this issuer can also be found in the Rating Methodologies sub-directory on Moody's website.

Headquartered in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Temirbank had assets of KZT294 billion (US2.45 billion) at year-end 2008.