OREANDA-NEWS. Expert RA rating agency has awarded an A++ top (highest) creditworthiness rating to Vneshprombank. The stable outlook indicates a high probability that the rating will remain at the current level in the mid-term period. Positive impact on the bank's rating is delivered by the low-level concentration of active operations in large credit risk objects (the ratio of large default risks to assets minus reserves made up 10.2% as of February 1, 2014), the good quality of the loan portfolio (the share of 4th and 5th category loans reached 1.5% as of February 1, 2014) and a moderately high level of capital adequacy (H1.0=13.7% as of February 1, 2014).

Expert RA analysts note the high level of the bank's profitability (ROE=17.8%; ROA=2.2% at year-end 2013, excluding Events after Reporting Date) and balanced short-term assets and liabilities (Н2=121.1%; Н3=102.9% as of February 1, 2014). The agency also notes the high quality of the securities portfolio (which comprised more than 70% of securities included in the Bank of Russia Lombard List as of February 1, 2014).

“The rating is supported by strong competitive positions in the Russian banking market and the wide geography of operations,” Expert RA Deputy Director for Bank Ratings Mikhail Doronkin added.

Among the negative factors influencing Vneshprombank ratings is its insufficiently conservative provisioning policy (with the delta between calculated and minimum possible provision ratio reaching 0.04 pp as of February 1, 2014). Expert RA also notes a high level of concentration of raised funds on large creditors (the share of the ten largest creditors in net liabilities reached 40.2%, and the share of the largest group of creditors was 11.5% as of February 1, 2014).

Vneshprombank Ltd. (Moscow, general license No. 3261) specializes in crediting medium and large businesses, settlement and cash services for non-loan organizations, and attracting funds of legal entities. The bank has branches in seven federal districts of the Russian Federation. The bank's head office is located in Moscow. Bank assets by Russian Accounting Standards comprised 169.1 billion rubles as of February 1, 2014 (38th place in Expert RA's rating), equity capital (under Form 0409123) totaled 18.9 billion rubles, and 2013 pretax profits (excluding EARD) totaled 2.9 billion rubles.