The international rating agency has recently changed the Rating Outlook for long-term credit ratings of fourteen Russian banks from Negative to Stable. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development was among these banks; in addition, Standard & Poor's affirmed the bank’s credit rating at the earlier level of B- and the national scale rating at ruBBB-.

‘These changes signify that Standard & Poor's believes the situation on the Russian banking market has grown more stable. We feel the banks have already gone through the worst as far as bad debt is concerned, while the banking sector’s liquidity has improved, and so have the bank’s refinancing opportunities,’ says Standard & Poor's analyst Ekaterina Trofimova.

She feels that quite a few Russian banks on Standard & Poor's rating list managed to boost the business by building up on the reserves and making impressive gross profits (which were actually higher than expected).