Arab Banking Corporation’s Ratings Affirmed

Capital Intelligence Ratings (CI Ratings or CI) today announced that it has affirmed the Long-Term Foreign Currency Rating (LT FCR) and Short-Term Foreign Currency (ST FCR) of Arab Banking Corporation (ABC or the Bank) at ‘BBB+’ and ‘A2’, respectively. At the same time, CI Ratings has affirmed ABC’s Bank Standalone Rating (BSR) of ‘bbb’, Core Financial Strength (CFS) rating of ‘bbb’ and Extraordinary Support Level (ESL) of Moderate. The Outlook on the LT FCR and BSR remains Stable.

The Bank’s LT FCR is set one notch above the BSR to reflect the moderate likelihood of extraordinary support from one of the core founding shareholders, the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), Kuwait’s sovereign wealth fund. Historically, both principal shareholders − the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) and the KIA − have demonstrated strong support in terms of capital and funding. The ongoing conflict in Libya, however, means that the timeliness of such support from the CBL in…