The credit rating of AO Citibank (hereinafter, Citibank or the Bank) determined primarily by excess capital and liquidity cushions along with low asset riskiness. These advantages are the result of the decision made by the Bank’s international parent company (hereinafter, the Group, Supporting Entity, or the SE) to actively wind down operations in Russia amid geopolitical tensions. Citibank’s maximum level of creditworthiness under the national scale is also supported by some potential for support from the Group being maintained. Despite the fact that its interest in being present in the Russian market has declined to a minimum since February 2022, the Agency assumes that the presence of a single brand remains the key factor determining limited support from the Group in case of emergency in order to minimize reputational risks.
Thus, the Bank’s standalone creditworthiness assessment (SCA) takes into account the sustainable business profile, as well as strong assessments of capital adequacy, the risk profile, and the funding and liquidity position. The addition of two notches in view of external support has an additional positive impact on the final rating.
Citibank is a large universal bank and one of the top 30 Russian banks in terms of equity. The Bank’s ultimate parent is one of the largest global bank groups.
KEY ASSESSMENT FACTORS
The assessment of the Bank’s business profile is bbb+. The volumes of the loan and deposit portfolios of Citibank are extremely insignificant, which determines the Bank’s corresponding shares in the financial system despite its relatively high capital position. In ACRA’s opinion, the Bank will continue to follow the path chosen by the Group, which considerably limits its business opportunities. Prospects for further development are unclear. In view of this, the Agency cannot rule out changes to the Bank’s strategy and ownership structure, as well as the format and extent of the Group’s presence in the Russian market over the next 12 months.
Operations are only carried out in the depository services segment. The Bank acts as a custodian for residents of a number of countries, which determines the specific structure of its balance sheet — the majority of assets and liabilities are mirror amounts of funds stored in special purpose accounts. It is likely that their shares in the balance sheet structure will continue to grow over the next 12 months.
Strong capital adequacy assessment. The Agency notes the continuing significant growth of the Bank’s capitalization (N1.2 was 97.4% as of April 1, 2025), providing an excess capital cushion due to a reduction in business volumes against the backdrop of the continued ability to generate profits. Unless there is a change in strategy or unforeseen losses, capital adequacy will continue to strengthen over the next 12 months.
The strong risk profile assessment of Citibank is determined by the high quality risk management system and the balance sheet that has transformed over the past three years, the structure of which is dominated by liquid and low-risk assets. ACRA did not identify any significant volumes of potential non-performing exposures on the balance sheet.
Strong funding and liquidity position. The policy of reducing operations has contributed to a significant accumulation of liquid assets, which with a large margin cover the remaining insignificant amount of client funds held by the Bank.
ACRA’s opinion is supported by the extremely strong values of regulatory liquidity ratios as of April 1, 2025: H2, H3 and H4 amounted to 2,410%, 1,123% and 0.03%, respectively.
The Group support assessment remains medium. According to ACRA’s understanding, the SE’s interest in having a presence on the Russian market has decreased after a sharp escalation of economic, political, sanctions and regulatory risks in Q1 2022. In its assessment of support, the Agency takes into account the business scale of the Bank and the SE and believes that, regardless of further steps taken by the Group in relation to its Russian business, if a single brand is maintained, strong reputational ties will remain.
In addition, the Agency specifically notes that the current assessment of the degree of support continues to include the different jurisdictions of presence of the Bank and the SE, which makes the possibility of providing support dependent on the freedom of capital movement between countries.
KEY ASSUMPTIONS
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The Group maintaining its shareholder and operational control over the Bank;
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Maintaining the current business model over the next 12 months, which is characterized by surplus capital and liquidity cushions.
POTENTIAL OUTLOOK OR RATING CHANGE FACTORS
The Stable outlook assumes that the rating will highly likely stay unchanged within the 12 to 18-month horizon.
A negative rating action may be prompted by:
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Loss by the Group of its shareholder and operational control over the Bank, or signs of reduced propensity of the SE to support the Bank;
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Another downgrade of the business profile assessment due to further reduction of the Bank’s presence in Russia;
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Sharp deterioration of the current comfortable financial metrics due to, for example, a material change to the strategy or unforeseen losses.
RATING COMPONENTS
SCA: aa.
Adjustments: none.
Support: plus two notches to the SCA.
ISSUE RATINGS
No outstanding issues have been rated.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURE
The credit rating has been assigned under the national scale for the Russian Federation based on the Methodology for Assigning Credit Ratings to Banks and Bank Groups under the National Scale for the Russian Federation, Methodology for Assigning Credit Ratings with External Support, and the Key Concepts Used by the Analytical Credit Rating Agency Within the Scope of Its Rating Activities.
The assessment of the SE’s creditworthiness has been determined based on the principles of the Methodology for Assigning Credit Ratings to Banks and Banking Groups under the International Scale, Methodology for Assigning Credit Ratings to Sovereign Entities under the International Scale, and the Methodology for Mapping Credit Ratings Assigned under ACRA’s International Scale to Credit Ratings Assigned under ACRA’s National Scales.
The credit rating of AO Citibank was published by ACRA for the first time on July 6, 2017. The credit rating and its outlook are expected to be revised within one year following the publication date of this press release.
The credit rating was assigned based on data provided by AO Citibank, information from publicly available sources, and ACRA’s own databases. The rating analysis was performed using the IFRS financial statements of AO Citibank and the financial statements of AO Citibank drawn up in compliance with the requirements of the Bank of Russia. The credit rating is solicited and AO Citibank participated in its assignment.
In assigning the credit rating, ACRA used only information, the quality and reliability of which were, in ACRA’s opinion, appropriate and sufficient to apply the methodologies.
ACRA provided no additional services to AO Citibank. No conflicts of interest were discovered in the course of credit rating assignment.
