Al Baraka Islamic Bank – Ratings Affirmed

Capital Intelligence Ratings (CI Ratings or CI) today announced that it has affirmed the Long-Term Foreign Currency Rating (LT FCR) and Bank Standalone Rating (BSR) of Al Baraka Islamic Bank (AIB or the Bank) at ‘B’ and ‘b-’, respectively. The Outlook for these ratings has been revised to Stable from Negative. At the same time, CI Ratings has affirmed AIB’s Short-Term Foreign Currency Rating (ST FCR) at ‘B’, and Core Financial Strength (CFS) rating at ‘b-’. The Extraordinary Support Level (ESL) remains at Moderate.

AIB’s LT FCR is set one notch higher than the BSR given the moderate likelihood of extraordinary support from the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB). Although we deem the Bahraini government to be willing to provide extraordinary support (despite AIB’s lack of systemic importance), its financial capacity may be limited as indicated by Bahrain’s sovereign ratings (‘B+’/‘B’/Negative). The BSR is derived from a CFS rating of ‘b-’ and an…