The National Rating Agency has assigned a credit rating of A to Uniastrum Bank, with a stable outlook. As the NRA noted in a press release, the agency assigned the rating to this bank for the first time.
Among positive factors that support the rating analysts pointed to the bank's strong liquidity indicators, low concentration of funds on the ten biggest creditors in liabilities, high coverage of the credit portfolio and the new owner's interest (Artem Avetisian became a Uniastrum Bank shareholder in 2015) in the bank's development.
As for rating constraints, the agency specified the not-high-quality credit portfolio taking into account overdue debt (but the bank has been implementing a program to cut bad debt) and an under-way strategy to attract retail funds (since November 2015 the bank's cash attraction from households has climbed 88.4%, or Rub 27.6 bln). The bank's dependence of funding on loyalty of its retail customers at 93% is viewed by the agency as high, while the bank's plans provide for a gradual decrease of this component thanks to the efforts to attract clients from the corporate and SME segments. Moreover, the bank's rating is pressured by the breakdown of the bank's equity and a moderate portion, as of today, of lending-related income.