Moody’s ups URSA Bank’s rating

Fitch и Moody's report URSA Bank’s Rating Outlooks have been promoted due to the stockholders’ decision to unite in a holding with MDM-Bank, the bank’s press officer reports. Fitch affirmed the bank’s short-term Issuer Default Rating at B+ and gave it a Rating Watch Positive. The agency reports the proposed merger will enable the two banks to build up on their strengths in the business and retail market segments as well as to open up a whole range of brand new advantages through expanded customer base, greater size, and more pronounced risk diversification. Moody's has also affirmed

Moody’s Investors Service, the international rating agency, confirmed URSA Bank’s BFSR at D- and its foreign currency deposit rating at Ba3/NP, with Stable Rating Outlook for both rating types. Moody’s analysts report the bank’s current rating is based on the business’s stable position on its key Ural and Siberian markets; besides, URSA Bank keeps on developing rapidly and takes pride in good profitability and funding structure. Moody’s also commented upon the bank’s ‘telling financial and efficiency indicators’ and ‘good-level capital adequacy’.

The brand known as URSA Bank entered the Russian banking market a year ago. Today, URSA Bank is Russia’s 16th largest bank in terms of assets: these, according to Interfax-CEA, increased by more than 65% compared to the beginning of 2007. In addition, the bank is now Russia’s second largest bank in terms of asset growth dynamics, 17th largest in terms of capital volume, 13th largest in terms of natural persons’ deposit volume, and 5th largest in terms of consumer loan volume, the bank’s press officer reports. According to The Finance magazine’s rating published in October 2007, URSA Bank was

Moody’s Investors Service raised SKB-Bank’s B2/Not Prime deposit rating outlook in terms of both ruble and foreign currency deposits from Stable to Positive. The bank’s financial stability rating was confirmed at E+ with the Stable outlook. At the same time, Moody's Interfax (controlled by Moody’s Investors Service) promoted SKB-Bank’s long-term credit rating from Baa1.ru to A3.ru. The new improved ratings and rating outlooks stem from SKB-Bank’s better position on Sverdlovsk Region market and its gradual expansion into the nearby regions as well as the good quality of its assets,

‘All the unhealthy panic around the bank deposits in Sverdlovsk Regions has finally cooled down. People are no longer desperate to get their cash back immediately. The banks that used to have a hard time cashing their customers’ deposits have by now managed to solve their liquidity problems, and people even started opening more deposits now,’ says Pavel Efremov, Advisor to the Chairman of Bank Monetniy Dom (Mechel-Bank). For one, the amount of foreign currency deposits opened in November 2008 exceeded that for October 2008 by 22.9%, whereas the amount of foreign currency deposits opened in