Standard&Poor’s credit rating service reconsidered the ratings of fourteen Russian banks. Under the new methodology, the long- and short-term ratings of the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development were raised from B-/C to B/B; the bank’s national scale rating was also promoted from ruBBB+ to ruA-, with Stable rating outlook, the agency reports.

‘While upgrading the methodology, we also tried to take into account the results of our monitoring the banks’ activity in unfavorable banking market and economic conditions brought about by the recession of 2007-2009 and the issue of Europe’s current sovereign debts,’ S&P reports. The new method’s main distinction lies in the presence of new criteria that make it possible to estimate the trust level of the market participants and the updated approach to evaluating a bank’s capital based on risks revealed in the course of the recession.