PROMSVYAZ : National Rating Agency confirmed PSB credit rating at AA+ level with a positive outlook

National Rating Agency confirmed individual credit rating of PSB at AA+ level with a positive outlook (very high creditworthiness, first level). Agency plans to upgrade the rating or to revise the outlook after PSB 1H'2016 IFRS results publication.

In the rating agency's press release, its analysts noted "a stable position of the Bank in the Russian financial system, its growing customer base, sound liquidity", "a high level of corporate governance and risk management, as well as the ability of major shareholders to provide timely support to the Bank" among key factors supporting the rating. The agency also noted systemic importance of PSB and its market leadership, including in "the Russian factoring and SME lending market".

In a difficult macroeconomic environment of 2015, PSB remained a stable financial institution recognized as a systemically important bank by the Central Bank of Russia. Amid decline in business margins and significant additional provision charges PSB managed to sustain its fee and commission income and improve its operating result with income from operations in the financial and foreign exchange markets, as well as reduce operating costs by 7% amid the inflation rate of 13% and a 30% depreciation of the ruble. Liquidity position remained traditionally strong and amounted to more than RUB 230 bn as at the end of 2015, allowing PSB to meet new liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) requirements even without taking into account credit line from CBR. As at 1 January 2016, PSB LCR ratio stood at 75%, compared with the minimum CBR requirement of 70%. In 2015, PSB was able to significantly strengthen its capital: N1.0 capital adequacy ratio rose to 13.9% as at the end of 2015, up 1.9 pp from the beginning of 2015.