S&P publishes latest BICRA report on Azerbaijan

"We classify the banking sector of the Republic of Azerbaijan (BBB-/Negative/A-3) in group '8' under our Banking Industry Country Risk Assessment (BICRA) methodology. A BICRA analysis for a country covers rated and unrated financial institutions that take deposits, extend credit, or engage in both activities. A BICRA is scored on a scale from '1' to '10', ranging from the lowest-risk banking systems (group '1') to the highest-risk (group '10'). As of July 20, 2015, the other countries in BICRA group '8' are Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia, Paraguay, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, and Bolivia.

"Our bank criteria use our BICRA economic risk and industry risk scores to determine a bank's anchor, the starting point in assigning an issuer credit

rating. The anchor for a bank operating predominantly in Azerbaijan is 'bb-'."