Jordan Kuwait Bank’s Ratings Affirmed; CFS Lowered

Jordan Kuwait Bank’s Ratings Affirmed; CFS Lowered

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 Rating (ST FCR) of Jordan Kuwait Bank (JKB) at ‘B+’ and ‘B’, respectively. At the same time, CI Ratings has affirmed JKB ’s Bank Standalone Rating (BSR ) of ‘b+’, and Extraordinary Support Level (ESL) of Moderate. The Outlook for both the LT FCR and BSR remains Stable. The Bank’s Core Financial Strength (CFS) rating has however been adjusted to ‘bb’ from ‘bb+’.

The one notch downward adjustment to the CFS reflects the deterioration in JKB ’s asset quality in 9M 20, including a significantly higher NPL ratio, as well as impairments in the Bank ’s investment portfolio and receivables from banks. The resultant high provision charges in the same period produced net loss for the Bank. We expect…