MOSCOW, October 28 (RIA Novosti) - The Fitch ratings agency upgraded B.I.N. Bank's (BIN) ratings Friday to long-term B- from CCC+, short-term B from C, and national long-term BB(rus) from BB-(rus). Its other ratings have been affirmed at Support 5 and Individual D. Following the upgrades, the outlooks on both the long-term and the national long-term ratings are now stable, an agency news release said.
This move reflects Fitch's expectation that a $100 million capital injection will be forthcoming by the end of 2005, significantly improving BIN's already acceptable capitalization ratios. It also reflects the decrease over the past 18 months in concentration levels on both sides of the balance.
BIN, one of Russia's 30 largest banks in terms of assets, was established in 1993 to provide banking services to other members of the BIN group. BIN's lending operations are currently predominantly with large corporations, but in 2002 the bank broadened its strategy to include the retail and small- to medium-sized enterprise sectors.
