The credit rating of AO Citibank (hereinafter, Citibank, or the Bank) is based on the Bank’s strong assessments of business profile, capital adequacy, risk profile, and funding and liquidity. The support from the Bank's parent company with a high creditworthiness is also positive for the credit rating.

Citibank is a large universal bank and one of the top 30 Russian banks in terms of equity. The Bank’s ultimate parent is one of the largest global bank groups (hereinafter, the Group, the Supporting Entity, or the SE). In H1 2021, the Supporting Entity made a strategic decision to wind down its retail banking operations in 13 countries of presence, including Russia. In 2022, the Group also announced its intention to cut some other of its business lines. In Q4 2022, the largest portion of the portfolio of consumer loans was sold to PJSC BANK URALSIB, and in Q2 2023, Citibank offered its credit card holders to migrate to this bank.

Key assessment factors

The business profile assessment has been downgraded by two notches to a-. The reduction of the volume and range of the Bank’s operations had a negative impact on the Bank's operating income diversification, which caused the downgrade of the business profile assessment. On the other hand, sound equity reserve, high management quality, reputation, and transparent ownership structure allow the Bank's business profile assessment to remain in the category 'a'.

The capital adequacy assessment has been upgraded to strong. The Agency notes a significant growth in the Bank's capital adequacy metrics due to shrinking business. Equity reserve allows Citibank to withstand a substantial increase (well above 500 bps) in the cost of credit risk without violating regulatory requirements. The level of net interest margin (NIM) is within the range typical for peer banks. In the short-term, dividend restrictions are expected to support the Bank’s ability to increase capital, as assessed by ACRA using the average capital generation ratio.

ACRA has upgraded the Bank’s risk profile assessment to strong. Following a decrease in the volume of the loan portfolio in relation to the amount of assets and equity, the loan portfolio concentration is no more a factor that affects the risk profile assessment. The quality of assets outside the loan portfolio has remained high. Citibank places most of its temporarily free funds with the Bank of Russia and the Group companies or purchases Russian sovereign bonds. The quality of the risk management system is assessed as high.

Strong liquidity position and well-balanced funding profile. The Bank firmly withstands the outflow of deposits under ACRA’s base case scenario. In the stress scenario, there is no shortage of liquidity. The Bank’s long-term liquidity is assessed as strong. Funding sources are well-diversified. The share of corporate funds, the largest funding source, is comparably low. The Bank continues to demonstrate a low dependence on the funds of the largest lenders, including the SE.

The Group support assessment has remained medium. According to ACRA’s understanding, the SE's interest in having a presence on the Russian market has decreased after a sharp escalation of economic, political, sanctions and regulatory risks in the Q1 2022. In its assessment of support, ACRA takes into account the business scale of the Bank and the SE and believes that, regardless of further steps taken by the Group in relation to its Russian business, in case a single brand is maintained, strong reputational ties will remain.

In addition, the Agency specifically notes that the current assessment of the degree of support continues to include different jurisdictions of presence of the Bank and the SE, which makes the possibility of providing support dependent on the freedom of capital movement between countries.

KEY ASSUMPTIONS

  • The Group maintaining its shareholding and operating control over the Bank.

  • Maintaining low cost of credit risk.

  • N1.2 above 9% within the 12 to 18-month horizon.

  • Maintaining the current funding structure within the 12 to 18-month horizon.

POTENTIAL OUTLOOK OR RATING CHANGE FACTORS

The Stable outlook assumes that the rating will highly likely stay unchanged within the 12 to 18-month horizon.

A negative rating action may be prompted by:

  • Loss by the Group of its shareholding and operating control over the Bank, or reduced propensity of the SE to support the Bank;

  • Downgrade of the business profile assessment due to further decline of the operating income diversification;

  • Downgrade of the funding assessment due to an increase in the dependence of the Bank on the largest funding source and the funds of the largest lenders.

RATING COMPONENTS

SCA: aa+.

Adjustments: none.

Support: +1 notch.

ISSUE RATINGS

No outstanding issues have been rated.

REGULATORY DISCLOSURE

The credit rating has been assigned under the national scale for the Russian Federation based on the Methodology for Credit Ratings Assignment to Banks and Bank Groups under the National Scale for the Russian Federation, Methodology for Analyzing Rated Entities Associated with a State or a Group, and the Key Concepts Used by the Analytical Credit Rating Agency Within the Scope of Its Rating Activities.

The credit rating of AO Citibank was published by ACRA for the first time on July 6, 2017. The credit rating and its outlook are expected to be revised within one year following the publication date of this press release.

The credit rating was assigned based on data provided by AO Citibank, information from publicly available sources, and ACRA’s own databases. The rating analysis was performed using the IFRS financial statements of AO Citibank and the financial statements of AO Citibank drawn up in compliance with Bank of Russia Ordinance No. 4927-U dated October 8, 2018. The credit rating is solicited, and AO Citibank participated in its assignment.

In assigning the credit rating, ACRA used only information, the quality and reliability of which were, in ACRA’s opinion, appropriate and sufficient to apply the methodologies.

ACRA provided no additional services to AO Citibank. No conflicts of interest were discovered in the course of credit rating assignment.

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