As part of the annual rating affirmation process, the international agency Standard & Poor’s has reaffirmed Nurbank’s short-term rating at 'B' and set its long-term rating at 'B-'.
According to S&P Global Ratings, the business position of JSC Nurbank has deteriorated due to low profitability against an uncertain external environment. In turn, the Chairman of the Management Board of JSC Nurbank, Eldar Sarsenov, commented on this fact.
“The decision by Standard & Poor’s was expected given the unstable situation in the financial market and ongoing consolidation in the banking sector. It is also related to S&P's expectations for Nurbank to increase its market share, implying aggressive growth and, accordingly, increased risks. However, it should be noted that we adhere to a conservative approach with moderate development, as minimizing risks and ensuring the safety of our clients’ funds is essential for us,” noted Eldar Sarsenov.
“Being one of the major market participants, we bear responsibility towards our depositors, investors, and partners, and therefore, openly declare that Nurbank remains stable and reliable. Moreover, thanks to our moderate development policy, by the end of 2016, we managed to stabilize the bank's competitive position in the market and achieve a positive trend in key financial indicators,” he added.
Standard & Poor’s noted that they would revise the outlook on the ratings to 'Stable' in the near future should capitalization and profitability indicators improve. According to Eldar Sarsenov, the bank is already actively working in this direction, and soon in his interviews, he will reveal the main directions of the updated strategy of the bank, the achieved results, and talk about new services awaiting clients.
This year the bank celebrates its 25th anniversary, and we intend to meet our clients’ trust and expectations by continuing dynamic development, balanced growth, and the implementation of new services and technologies. Furthermore, the bank's management has developed a new development strategy that takes into account Standard & Poor’s comments”, concluded E. Sarsenov.
Key financial indicators of the bank for 2016:
- Assets increased by 19% to 381.4 billion tenge.
- The loan volume grew by 11% or 22.3 billion tenge, amounting to 219.7 billion tenge.
- The securities portfolio amounted to 53.1 billion tenge, increasing by 25% or 10.7 billion tenge over the year.
- The bank's liabilities increased by 21.1% or 59.2 billion tenge. By the end of 2016, the bank's liabilities exceeded 340.4 billion tenge. In the structure of liabilities, the share of customer funds placed in current accounts and deposits, excluding government and bank accounts, is 78.8%. The increase in customer funds for 2016 amounted to 62.7 billion tenge or 30.5%.
- Interest income increased by 18%, commission income growth was about 2%.