On 29 September 2020, the international credit rating agency Moody’s has upgraded the credit rating of AS “Citadele banka” to investment grade, assigning Baa3 rating with stable outlook.
Upon upgrade of the credit rating of Citadele banka, Moody's has taken into consideration the improvement in the fundamentals of Citadele banka, and the effects of the planned SIA UniCredit Leasing acquisition on the bank’s standalone credit profile. The rating upgrade is also based on significant improvement in Citadele solvency during the last years, higher capitalization and declining of problem loans.
Johan Akerblom, CEO of Citadele Bank, said: “The upgrade to investment grade by Moody’s confirms the solid financial performance of the bank. It also reaffirms that we are making good progress in achieving our long-term strategy to become the leading financial services provider in the Baltics. We are proud that despite the challenging economic environment in 2020, we have continued to provide our customers with uninterrupted best-in-class financial services and ensured that the bank operates with strong capital and liquidity ratios.”
In the first half of 2020, Citadele Group’s capital adequacy ratio (CAR) was 21.0%, Group’s deposits were EUR 3.65 billion, and the net loan portfolio reached EUR 1.50 billion.