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Fitch affirms Access Bankâ€™s rating

09 March 2011 11:42 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Vahab Rzayev â€“ APA-Economics. Fitch Ratings has affirmed AccessBank’s (AB) Long-term foreign currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ’BB+’. The Outlook is Stable. A full list of rating actions is at the end of this comment.

The affirmation of AB’s IDR reflects Fitch’s view of the probability of support available from its international financial institution (IFI) shareholders, in particular KfW (’AAA’/Stable; 20% stake), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD; ’AAA’/Stable; 20%) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC; ’AAA’/Stable; 20%). At the same time, Fitch notes some uncertainty in respect to timely support always being provided in case of need, given the fragmented nature of the shareholder structure and the limited strategic importance of the bank for its IFI owners. For these reasons, AccessBank’s Long-term IDR has been affirmed at ’BB+’, one notch below Azerbaijan’s Country Ceiling of ’BBB-’.

AB’s Individual Rating of ’D’ reflects Fitch’s concerns over AB’s rapid asset growth in the challenging Azerbaijan operating environment, and the still high reliance on wholesale funding. However, it also takes into account so far resilient asset quality, strong performance metrics, the currently significant liquidity cushion and solid capitalisation.

AB was established in 2002 as a bank specialising in microfinance lending. At end-2010, AB was the seventh-largest bank in Azerbaijan by total assets and sixth-largest by total loans.