Moody’s investors services reports positive development for long term foreign currency deposits of Pakistani Banks
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Moody’s Investors Service (Moody’s) has upgraded the long-term foreign currency deposit ratings of 29 banks and the long-term foreign-currency issuer rating of one bank across five countries, which are Bahrain, Oman, Jordan, Pakistan, and Turkey.
Moody’s has also downgraded the long-term foreign currency Counterparty Risk Rating of one bank in Oman.
The rating actions are driven by changes in the local currency (LC) and foreign currency (FC) country ceilings applied to the jurisdictions of the banks following the publication of Moody’s updated Country Ceilings Methodology on December 7, 2020. ------------------------------
The rating actions cover:
1. Bahrain Islamic Bank B.S.C. 2. National Bank of Bahrain BSC 3. BBK B.S.C. 4. Bank Muscat SAOG 5. HSBC Bank Oman SAOG (HBON) 6. National Bank of Oman SAOG 7. Oman Arab Bank S.A.O.G 8. Bank Dhofar SAOG 9. Sohar International Bank SAOG 10. Bank Nizwa SAOG 11. Arab Bank PLC 12. Cairo Amman Bank (CAB) 13. Housing Bank for Trade and Finance (The) (HBTF) 14. *Allied Bank Limited* 15. *Habib Bank Ltd* 16. *MCB Bank Limited* 17. *National Bank of Pakistan* 18. *United Bank Ltd* 19. T.C. Ziraat Bankasi A.S. 20. Turkiye Is Bankasi A.S. 21. Turkiye Garanti Bankasi A.S. 22. Akbank T.A.S. 23. Turkiye Halk Bankasi A.S. 24. Yapi ve Kredi Bankasi A.S. 25. Turkiye Vakiflar Bankasi T.A.O. 26. QNB Finansbank A.S. 27. Denizbank A.S. 28. Turk Ekonomi Bankasi A.S. 29. HSBC Bank A.S. (Turkey) 30. Alternatifbank A.S.
All other ratings and assessments of the banks are unaffected by actions.
The rating actions on 30 banks in the Middle East, Pakistan, and Turkey are driven by changes in country ceilings under Moody’s updated country ceilings methodology.
Country ceilings typically indicate the highest rating level that would generally be assigned to the financially strongest obligations of issuers domiciled in a country, absent exceptional considerations such as external support from outside the country.
The updated ceilings methodology has unified deposit ceilings with the typically higher debt ceilings, whereby LC and FC country ceilings are no longer distinguished between deposit and debt ceilings. These changes reflect Moody’s view that the risks that affect access to bank deposits are not materially different from those that affect the ability of banks and non-banks to service their debt obligations.
