Mubasher: Moody's Investors Service has affirmed foreign currency deposit ratings of Gulf International Bank (GIB) at Baa1/P-2.
The rating agency changed the outlook of the bank's long-term deposit and senior unsecured debt ratings to stable from negative, according to a statement.
Moody’s affirmed GIB’s foreign currency senior unsecured debt rating at Baa1 and downgraded the Bahraini bank’s baseline credit assessment to ba2 from ba1.
Meanwhile, the provisional subordinated program rating was downgraded to (P) Baa3 from (P) Baa2.
“The primary driver for the BCA downgrade is GIB's increased non-performing loans. GIB's asset quality has deteriorated in recent years, with non-performing loans (NPL) rising to 7% of gross loans as at December 2018, up from 4.6% at December 2017 and 3.3% at December 2016,” Moody’s said.
