Moody's upgrades Kapital Bank's deposit ratings to Ba3; upgrades BCA to b1

This action follows the conclusion of the rating agency's review, initiated on 17 March 2015, which had been prompted by changes arising from the implementation of Moody's new methodology for rating banks globally; the bank's strengthened financial fundamentals; and the improvement in the macro profile to "Weak" from "Weak-" for Azerbaijan (Baa3 stable), following Moody's revision of the sovereign Institutional Strength factor. Short-term Not-Prime deposit rating was affirmed.

At the same time, the bank's significantly improved loss-absorption buffer with supported capitalisation and strengthened profitability prompted Moody's to upgrade Kapital Bank's baseline credit assessment (BCA) and adjusted BCA to b1 from b2. 

Moody's has also assigned a Counterparty Risk Assessment (CR Assessment) of Ba2(cr)/short-term Not-Prime(cr) to Kapital Bank. The Outlook on long-term ratings is stable.