Moody’s Rates Sterling Bank

Moody’s Investors Service has assigned a Counterparty Risk Assessment of B2 (CR) /Not Prime (CR) to Sterling Bank Plc for the month of June 2018.
The upgraded rating, according to a statement from the bank, also affirmed the bank’s improved risk management process and IT infrastructure.

It was an uplift from the bank’s b3 baseline credit assessment (BCA) in May.
“Equally, it upholds Fitch Ratings’ February 2018, update on the lender’s standalone creditworthiness, coherent strategy, business transformation initiatives, and strong management team,” the statement added.

Moody’s based the credit rating on Sterling Bank’s resilient deposit-based funding profile and fair local currency liquidity buffers, improvements to its IT infrastructure and risk management processes and a growing retail product suite as well as high probability of support in case of need.

Commenting on the updated rating, the Chief Executive Officer, Sterling Bank, Abubakar Suleiman said: “We will continue to execute the plans to drive efficiency across the business under the three pillars of agility, digitisation and specialisation.

“These pillars will propel us toward sustainable growth by enhancing our ability to innovate; solidify our retail funding base; strengthen our enterprise-wide risk management framework and drive excellent service delivery across all channels to enhance customer experience.”

Analysts at Moody’s also assigned national scale rating on Sterling Bank, noting that the bank’s national scale ratings of A2.ng/NG-1 for local currency deposits and A3.ng/NG-2 for foreign currency deposits are generated from the bank’s global scale ratings through maps specific to each country.

On the outlook for the bank, the report noted that, “All the long-term ratings assigned to Sterling carry a stable outlook, reflecting our expectation that the bank’s pre-provision income will withstand credit costs and the bank’s credit fundamentals will remain in line with similarly rated banks.”