OREANDA-NEWS. September 09, 2011. Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services raised Bank Vozrozhdenie long-term credit rating to “BB-“ and “ruAA-“ on Russian national scale, outlook “Stable”, reported the press-centre of Bank Vozrozhdenie.

“We are pleased to see a positive rating action of Standard & Poor’s amid persisting uncertainty in the global financial system. Strong results of the bank in the second quarter of 2011 together with balanced approach to risk management resulted into rating upgrade to “BB-“ — one of the highest among Russian private banks. We managed to improve our earnings on the back of interest income boost due to focus on more profitable client segments and continued positive dynamics of fees and commissions — traditionally key advantage of the bank. However, in the current market volatility we keep sticking to conservative provisioning policy and sustain high liquidity level,” — commented Andrey Shalimov, member of the Management Board and Head of Treasury.

In October 2010 long-term rating outlook was changed to “positive” driven by improvements in asset quality, and now earnings recovery together with adequate levels of provisioning, liquidity and capitalization resulted into positive rating action. Currently the bank generates stable revenues on a conservative balance sheet, while its non-performing loans are fully covered by provisions.

“We expect that Bank Vozrozhdenie will continue to follow a conservative credit management strategy based on local market knowledge”, — underlined rating agency analysts in the press-release. Positive rating action might be considered if the asset quality indicators move closer to precrisis levels with further business diversification, while adequate liquidity and capitalization are sustained.