Moody’s Investor Service, the international rating agency, has upgraded the foreign currency deposit rating of National Bank of Bahrain (NBB) to Baa3/P-3 from Ba2/NP. NBB’s rating was raised following Moody’s announcement last week to upgrade the Kingdom of Bahrain’s country ratings which included the upgrade of the foreign currency ceiling for on-shore bank deposits to Baa3/P-3 from Ba2/NP.
The Bank’s Financial Strength Rating of C- (C minus) remains the highest assigned by Moody’s to any bank based in Bahrain. NBB Managing Director Hassan Ali Juma said: “The FSR rating is a measure of NBB’s intrinsic strength and reflects the Bank’s strong balance sheet, prime asset quality and sound financial position.”
National Bank of Bahrain is a provider of commercial and retail banking services with the largest banking network extending to 25 branches and 38 automatic teller machines. At year-end 2001, the Bank had total assets of $2.87 billion. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
