Bulgarian American Credit Bank : Information about the Credit Rating of Bulgarian-American Credit Bank

On 24 April 2023 BCRA - Credit Rating Agency AD published information about raising and confirming the ratings assigned to BACB, as follows:

• Confirming the Long-term rating at BB, change of outlook from "Stable" to "Positive" and confirming the short-term rating at B
• Raising of the national-scale long-term rating from BBB (BG) to BBB+ (BG), confirming of outlook at "Stable" and raising the national-scale short-term rating from A-3 (BG) to A-2 (BG);

Financial strength rating	Primary Rating July 27, 2016	Updated Rating 21 April 2022	Updated Rating 24 April 2023
Long-term rating	В	BB	BB
Outlook	Stable	Stable	Positive
Short-term rating	В	B	B
National-scale long-term rating	В+ (BG)	BBB (BG)	BBB+ (BG)
Outlook	Stable	Stable	Stable
National-scale short-term rating	В (BG)	A-3 (BG)	A-2 (BG)

In the process of assigning the ratings BCRA uses the methodology which is officially adopted for assigning bank financial strength ratings.

According to the published text, during the period under review, Bulgarian-American Credit Bank AD reported a significant improvement in its operations and financial performance. There has been an improvement in asset quality with a reduction in the level of NPLs in the portfolio, which still remain at a relatively high level for the system, with a lower level of impairment coverage.

Additional positive influences on the rating of Bulgarian-American Credit Bank AD could be: acceleration of the process of improvement in the quality of the portfolio, stabilization of the high levels of operating and financial result with the retention of the favorable positioning in most of the profitability indicators, while maintaining stable levels of capital adequacy and liquidity.

The rating could be negatively impacted by: a significant contraction in the operating and/or financial result, a decline in profitability, an interruption in the processes of improvement in the quality of the loan portfolio as a result of adverse effects of the potential economic downturn due to the military conflict in Ukraine.

The complete text of the report is available on the "BCRA-Credit Rating Agency" AD web site.