The rating agency Moody’s demoted Uniastrum Bank’s long-term deposit rating outlook to Negative due to the demotion of the bank’s parent enterprise Bank of Cyprus’s rating, RBC daily reports.

The bank’s long-term deposit rating given by Moody’s has been affirmed at Ba3, but the rating outlook has been changed from Stable to Negative. The agency’s analysts report the outlook had to be reconsidered because of the problems faced by the parent company Bank of Cyprus that owns 80% of Uniastrum Bank. The former proprietors Gagik Zakaryan and Georgy Piskov own a 10% shareholding each.

Moody’s announced the Cyprus-based bank was having problems as early as June 2011. The Bank of Cyprus’s long-term deposit rating was then demoted from Baa2 down to Ba1, its short-term rating was demoted from Prime-2 down to Not Prime, its financial stability rating was reduced from D+ down to D-. As for the Russian bank, the agency says Uniastrum Bank’s rating used to be partially supported by the parent company’s rating. Under Moody’s methodology, a decrease in the ratings of a parent enterprise inevitably results in a reconsideration of its daughter enterprises’ ratings and outlooks.