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    Emil Lazarian
  • 1 year ago
    • Categories: 2023

Moody’s changes Ameriabank’s outlook to stable; affirms Ba3 rating

 16:56,

YEREVAN, JUNE 29, ARMENPRESS. Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") upgraded Ameriabank’s Baseline Credit Assessment (BCA) to ba3 from b1 and affirmed the bank’s long-term deposit ratings at Ba3. The rating agency also changed the outlook on the Ba3 long-term deposit ratings to stable from negative.

The upgrade of Ameriabank's BCA and Adjusted BCA to ba3 from b1 is driven by the bank's asset quality resilience through pandemic combined with dramatically improved capital adequacy and profitability over the last two years. The upgrade of the bank's long-term Counterparty Risk Ratings (CRRs) to Ba2 from Ba3, and the upgrade of the long-term Counterparty Risk Assessment (CR Assessment) to Ba2(cr) from Ba3(cr) follows the BCA upgrade.

The rating agency notes that Ameriabank continues to demonstrate robust performance as reflected in a very high return on tangible assets of 3.6% in 2022 and 3.5%(annualized) during the first quarter of 2023.This was supported by strong pre-provision income, lower credit costs and robust cost efficiency with a cost to income ratio of 45% in Q1 2023.

According to Moody's, Ameriabank also materially improved its asset quality in 2021-2022 following the pandemic.The share of non-performing loans (NPL) decreased to 2.5%as ofQ1 2023 from4.2%at the end of 2020.NPL coverage by reserves remains robust at 80%as ofQ1 2023.

Ameriabank's capital buffer has materially strengthened over the recent years amid strong profitability and modest loan book growth.

The outlook on Ameriabank's long-term deposit ratings is stable, reflecting Moody’s view that the bank will maintain its sound fundamentals over the next 12-18 months. Ameriabank rating outlook update follows the sovereign rating outlook change from negative to stable.

Ameriabank CJSC

Ameriabank is a leading financial and technology company in Armenia, a major contributor to the Armenian economy, with assets exceeding AMD 1 trillion. In the course of digital transformation, it has launched a number of innovative solutions and platforms going beyond banking-only needs of its diverse customer base, thus creating a dynamically evolving financial technology space. 

Ameria was the first in Armenia to create ecosystems for both businesses and individuals, which give one-window access to a range of banking and non-banking services, among them - Estate.ameriabank.am, Automarket.ameriabank.am, Business.ameriabank.am. 

As a truly customer-centric company, Ameria aims to be a trusted and secure financial technology space with seamless solutions to improve the quality of life.

The Bank is supervised by the Central Bank of Armenia.

Emil Lazarian: “I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS