National Bank of Bahrain’s LT FCR Lowered following Sovereign Rating Action − Outlook Revised to Stable

8 April 2026

Capital Intelligence Ratings (CI Ratings or CI) today announced that it has lowered the Long-Term Foreign Currency Rating (LT FCR) of National Bank of Bahrain B.S.C. (NBB or the Bank) to ‘B’ from ‘B+’, and revised the Outlook for the LT FCR to Stable from Negative. NBB’s Short-Term Foreign Currency Rating (ST FCR) has been affirmed at ‘B’. At the same time, CI Ratings has lowered NBB’s Bank Standalone Rating (BSR) to ‘b’ from ‘b+’, and revised the BSR Outlook to Stable from Negative. The Stable Outlook indicates that the ratings are unlikely to change over the next 12 months. Given NBB’s status as the sole majority government-owned bank in Bahrain, the Extraordinary Support Level (ESL) of Moderate is affirmed.

The rating action follows the recent downgrade of Bahrain’s LT FCR (‘B’ from ‘B+’) and the revision of the Outlook on the sovereign rating to Stable from Negative. The lowering of the sovereign rating reflects the ongoing…