Moody’s investors services reports positive development for long term foreign currency deposits of Pakistani Banks

Moody’s Investors Service (Moody’s) has upgraded the long-term foreigncurrency deposit ratings of 29 banks and the long-term foreign-currencyissuer 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 CounterpartyRisk Rating of one bank in Oman.

The rating actions are driven by changes in the local currency (LC) andforeign currency (FC) country ceilings applied to the jurisdictions of thebanks following the publication of Moody’s updated Country CeilingsMethodology 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 aredriven by changes in country ceilings under Moody’s updated countryceilings methodology.

Country ceilings typically indicate the highest rating level that wouldgenerally be assigned to the financially strongest obligations of issuersdomiciled in a country, absent exceptional considerations such as externalsupport from outside the country.

The updated ceilings methodology has unified deposit ceilings with thetypically higher debt ceilings, whereby LC and FC country ceilings are nolonger distinguished between deposit and debt ceilings. These changesreflect Moody’s view that the risks that affect access to bank deposits arenot materially different from those that affect the ability of banks andnon-banks to service their debt obligations.