Fitch upgrades Ukrainian banks’ ratings

Fitch Ratings – London – 28 Oct 2024: Fitch Ratings has revised the National Long-Term Ratings of Joint-Stock Company Commercial Bank PrivatBank (Privat); JSC State Savings Bank of Ukraine (Oschadbank); JSB Ukrgasbank; and ProCredit Bank (Ukraine) (PCBU) to ‘AA+(ukr)’ from ‘AA(ukr)’. Fitch has also revised the National Long-Term Rating of Joint-Stock Company Sense Bank (Sense) to ‘AA(ukr)’ from ‘AA-(ukr)’.

Fitch has upgraded the National Long-Term Rating of JOINT STOCK COMPANY FIRST UKRAINIAN INTERNATIONAL BANK(FUIB) to ‘AA+(ukr) from ‘AA-(ukr)’ and affirmed the National Long-Term Rating of JSC The State Export-Import Bank of Ukraine (Ukreximbank) at ‘AA'(ukr). The Outlooks are Stable.

The actions follow Fitch’s recalibration of Ukraine’s National Rating Scale, which itself follows the recent upgrade of Ukraine’s Long-Term Local-Currency (LTLC) Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to ‘CCC+’ from ‘CCC-‘.

The banks’ other ratings are unaffected by the recalibration.

Key Rating Drivers

The revisions of the National Long-Term Ratings of Privat, Oschadbank, Ukrgasbank, PCBU, and Sense reflect changes in the National Rating Scale driven solely by the recalibration of the National Ratings correspondence table rather than changes in credit quality.

The upgrade of FUIB’s National Long-Term Rating reflects its improved relativities, despite its modest domestic franchise, evidenced by its strengthened capitalisation and high profitability. The affirmation of Ukreximbank’s National Long-Term Rating reflects its weakened relativities stemming from its lower capitalisation, notwithstanding the recent improvement in capital ratios, despite the bank’s strong domestic franchise.

The banks’ National Long-Term Ratings (other than PCBU) are driven by their intrinsic credit profiles. PCBU’s National Long-Term Rating is driven by our view of support from ProCredit Holding AG (PCH; BBB/Stable/bb), and underpinned by its standalone profile.

National ratings are a measure of relative credit risk among issuers in a country designed to help local investors differentiate risk. Ukraine’s National Ratings are denoted by the unique identifier ‘(ukr)’. Fitch adds this identifier to reflect the unique nature of the Ukrainian national rating scale. National scales are not comparable with Fitch’s international ratings scales or with other countries’ national ratings scales. For more details, see ” Fitch Ratings Recalibrates Ukraine’s National Rating Scale”, dated 14 October 2024, at https://www.fitchratings.com/.

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