BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 16. The Fitch Ratings international rating agency has revised the forecast on the rating of Expressbank OJSC (EB) to "positive" from "stable", confirming the bank's viability rating and long-term issuer default ratings (IDR) at the "B" level, Trend reports.
"EB's Long-Term IDRs are derived from its Viability Rating (VR) of 'b', which is in line with the implied VR. The Positive Outlook on the bank's IDRs reflects our expectations that EB's asset quality, profitability and capital buffer are likely to remain strong in the medium term, underpinned by the improving operating environment for Azerbaijani banks," the statement said.
The agency also notes the improvement of the situation in the whole banking sector of Azerbaijan.
"Fitch has revised the Outlook on the 'b+' operating environment score for Azerbaijani banks to Positive from Stable. This captures our expectation that financial stability in the highly cyclical Azerbaijani economy will continue to improve, due to the stronger financial profiles of domestic banks and tighter regulatory oversight," the agency said.
Fitch expects the bank's loan book to grow rapidly from 2023 through 2024, with a continued focus on unsecured consumer lending and gradual expansion in microlending to individual entrepreneurs.
"We expect the bank's asset quality to remain adequate, with the impaired loan ratio below five percent from 2023 through 2024, underpinned by loan growth and some write-offs. We also expect an increase in limited loan impairment charges (LICs) from 2023 through 2024 to weigh on the bank's performance, but the operating profit/RWA ratio to remain reasonable at 2.5 percent-3 percent," the agency said.
In addition, the agency noted that an upgrade of the bank's IDRs and VR would require further improvements in the local operating environment. This should also be accompanied by an extended record of reasonable asset quality, with the impaired loan ratio below five percent, and robust profitability, with the operating profit/RWA ratio exceeding two percent.
