Standard & Poor’s Elaborated on Current EDB Ratings

Standard & Poor’s published a report elaborating on its assessment of EDB’s current standing.

The agency points out the following factors which support EDB’s ratings (long-term ‘ВВВ+’, short-term ‘А-2’, forecast ‘stable’) and the general assessment of its performance:

• clear positioning of the Bank as a sub-regional international financial institution playing an important political role in the region;
• strategic importance of the Bank in the context of regional development and integration, first of all, in EurAsEC;
• strong support from the Bank’s stakeholders, Russia and Kazakhstan, particularly, their contributions to the charter capital; and
• high liquidity and capitalisation.

Standard & Poor’s points that, whilst the Bank’s structure and operations are similar to those of other international development banks, its track record in lending is relatively short and therefore it should exercise special prudence when selecting and monitoring investment projects in non-member countries. As a conclusion, the key tasks for the management of EDB are to expand and diversify its project and investment portfolios through efficient lending despite the declining financial markets.