RusRating Rating Agency has recently promoted SKB-Bank from B+ to BB-. The agency’s analyst Elena Nikolaenko explains this has to do with the fact that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has bought a share in SKB-Bank; besides, the company manages to build up on capital and expand geographically as well as to keep on perfecting its corporate management practices.

The bank’s rating on the whole is determined by nice rate of development, great support provided by a financially independent owner, and having a good potential for further growth. There are, however, some things that have been preventing the bank’s rating from going up lately, such as volatility of business clients’ short-term investments and rapid growth of retail loan portfolio (which is associated with greater risks).

RusRating sees SKB-Bank as an average regional bank in terms of assets. It’s also one of Sverdlovsk Region’s largest banks that has always had quite close ties with the regional authorities. SKB-Bank can boast a broad regional network and a great client base comprising large and medium-scale regional enterprises and their employees as well as the regional population. The bank is a very strong player on the region’s market and is aspiring to take the lead in the retail services and services to small and medium-scale business segments.