The credit rating of CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW (hereinafter, CBM or the Bank) reflects the stable standalone creditworthiness assessment (SCA) of the Bank, which is based on the adequate assessments of business profile, capital adequacy, and funding and liquidity, and the satisfactory risk profile. The rating also includes the addition of two notches to the SCA for potential external support from the government given the systemic importance of CBM.
The Stable outlook takes into account information from CBM on measures performed to improve its business processes and quality of assets coupled with their limited growth on the 12 to 18-month horizon, as well as ACRA’s expectations regarding the unchanged primary factors of the Bank’s SCA.
ACRA has also affirmed A+(RU) to the Bank’s bonds (RU000A107VV1, RU000A107R03), which are senior unsecured debt instruments, BBB+(RU) to the bond (RU000A108NQ6), which is a Tier 2 capital instrument, and BB(RU) to the bonds (RU000A0ZZE87, RU000A108L24, RU000A108LX6), which are common equity instruments.
key assessment factors
Adequate business profile assessment. CBM maintains sustainably high market positions among the largest banks in the country and mostly operates in major regions with a focus on Moscow’s financial services market. The Bank’s business model assumes close partnerships with major Russian companies, which largely helps CBM to attract and retain customers, and contributes to participation in promising and significant projects. At the same time, this business profile continues to result in a high operational concentration. In particular, along with a low diversification of borrowers, the loan portfolio has a pronounced focus on certain industries. In addition, a considerable part of CBM’s balance sheet is reverse repo transactions, which, according to ACRA’s expectations, will remain unchanged in the nearest years.
The Agency believes that in case of successful implementation of the strategy updated in 2025, as the scale of the Bank’s operations grows and taking into account the expected regulatory changes concerting concentration risk assessment, a gradual increase in the diversification of operations can be expected by the end of 2029. At the same time, according to calculations for 2024 and H1 2025, deterioration in the Bank’s operating income diversification indicator was noted due to an increase in the share of interest income on loans to legal entities. Large businesses remain a priority for the Bank, while CBM has plans to continue expanding its small and medium-sized business segment through partners and satellites of large corporate clients. The Bank’s retail line of business focuses on increasing the share of individuals’ funds in liabilities — growth is expected to be supported by, among other things, attracting employees of existing corporate clients. In the short term, the Bank will develop under its approved strategy, simultaneously carrying out measures to transform individual lines of business and stabilize asset quality and financial metrics.
The assessment of capitalization and profitability remains adequate despite the lower RAS and IFRS capital adequacy and a deterioration in ability to generate capital. The IFRS Tier 1 capital adequacy ratio (CAR), which decreased on the back of rapid growth of the loan portfolio in 2022 and 2023, is still not showing a recovery trend to the levels observed before 2022. The N1.2 Tier 1 CAR was 9.2% as of September 1, 2025. The projected moderate planned growth of assets, according to the Bank’s expectations, will ensure that capitalization does not fall below the current level. When carrying out stress testing of the cost of risk, the Agency takes into account the Bank’s actions to reduce credit risk.
The assessment of CBM’s profitability continues to be supported by the financial result of 2023. However, the Bank receiving profits in 2024 and H1 2025 led to a downward trend in the averaged capital generation ratio (ACGR).
Satisfactory risk profile. The share of non-performing and potentially non-performing loans in CBM’s portfolio increased slightly compared to last year’s value, both according to regulatory reporting and IFRS reporting, and ACRA’s calculations. The Agency does not expect the Bank’s loan portfolio to grow significantly in the next 12 months. At the same time, the Bank is currently adhering to a policy of growing reserves for non-performing assets and increasing the collateralization of the loan portfolio in general. Nevertheless, according to data as of June 30, 2025, the volume of unsecured loans in the portfolio is still constraining the risk portfolio assessment.
A significant part of CBM’s loan portfolio consists of loans granted to the largest Russian groups of companies. On the one hand, this reduces the likelihood of asset quality deterioration, but on the other hand, it negatively affects business diversification. The high concentration of assets on individual counterparties and sectors of the economy continues to limit the risk profile assessment.
Adequate funding and liquidity position. Despite some volatility in client balances this year, the Bank’s resource base has not undergone drastic changes over the past 12 months — the amount of funds of legal entities is the largest in the funding structure, while direct repo transactions and funds of individuals, whose share has slightly increased, continue to make up a significant part. ACRA notes a heightened concentration on the funds of the largest lenders, most of whom are regular customers of the Bank.
ACRA’s base case scenario for the next 12–18 months assumes that CBM will retain its comfortable liquidity cushion.
Importance to the financial system. In ACRA’s opinion, CBM has moderate systemic importance, given the size of its assets and scale of business. Therefore, it can rely on the state to support capital or liquidity in the event of stress. As a result, the Bank’s final rating takes into account two notches of support added to its SCA.
ACRA believes that disruptions to the stability of CBM’s operations may cause problems in the financial sector. Besides holding a considerable volume of the population’s funds, the Bank is actively engaged in servicing strategically important companies, which backs up the Agency’s opinion on the strategic importance of CBM.
KEY ASSUMPTIONS
- Maintaining the current market positions and systemic importance over the next 12 to 18 months, while implementing the new strategy.
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 positive rating action may be prompted by:
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Substantially lower concentration on the largest counterparties coupled with growth of the quality and level of collateralization of the loan portfolio;
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Capital metrics recovering to strong values and capital generation ability not deteriorating.
A negative rating action may be prompted by:
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Further deterioration of capital adequacy indicators due to, among other things, significant credit losses;
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Deterioration of asset quality;
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Growing concentration of the loan book on high-risk lending types;
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Signs of weaker market positions and/or reduced importance to the financial sector.
rating components
SCA: a-.
Adjustments: systemic importance, SCA + 2 notches.
ISSUE RATINGS
Rationale. The issues listed below are senior unsecured debt of CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW. According to ACRA’s methodology, the final credit ratings of the issues are equivalent to the credit rating of CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW — A+(RU).
CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW, interest-bearing non-convertible uncertificated bond subject to centralized title registration, series ЗО-2026-02 (RU000A107VV1), maturity date: September 21, 2026, issue volume: USD 160.108 mln — А+(RU).
CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW, interest-bearing non-convertible uncertificated bond subject to centralized title registration, series ЗО-2026-01 (RU000A107R03), maturity date: January 21, 2026, issue volume: EUR 210.232 mln — А+(RU).
Rationale. The issue listed below envisages a significant level of subordination with respect to senior unsecured creditors and is a supplementary capital instrument. According to ACRA’s methodology, the final credit rating of this issue type is three notches below the final credit rating of CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW (A+(RU)).
CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW, subordinated bond, series ЗО-2027 (RU000A108NQ6), maturity date: October 5, 2027, issue volume: USD 77.965 — BВB+(RU).
Rationale. The issues listed below envisage a significant level of subordination with respect to senior unsecured creditors and is a common capital instrument. According to ACRA’s methodology, the final credit rating of this issue type is five notches below the SCA of CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW (a-).
CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW, subordinated bond, series 15 (RU000A0ZZE87), maturity date: perpetual, issue volume: RUB 5 bln — BB(RU).
CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW, subordinated bond, series ЗО-2021 (RU000A108L24), maturity date: perpetual, issue volume: USD 91.996 mln — BB(RU).
CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW, subordinated bond, series ЗО-2017 (RU000A108LX6), maturity date: perpetual, issue volume: USD 137.204 mln — BB(RU).
regulatory disclosure
The credit ratings have been assigned to CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW and the bond issues of CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW based on the following methodologies: the Methodology for Assigning Credit Ratings to Banks and Bank Groups under the National Scale for the Russian Federation to calculate the SCA and determine the credit rating and the credit rating outlook of CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW under the national scale for the Russian Federation, Methodology for Assigning Credit Ratings to Financial Instruments under the National Scale for the Russian Federation to determine the credit rating of the bond issues under the national scale for the Russian Federation, and the Key Concepts Used by the Analytical Credit Rating Agency within the Scope of Its Rating Activities to ensure consistent and uniform application of ACRA’s methodologies, models, and key rating assumptions.
The credit rating of CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW assigned under the national scale for the Russian Federation was published by ACRA for the first time on June 15, 2017. The credit ratings of the bond issues (ISIN RU000A0ZZE87, RU000A107VV1, RU000A107R03, RU000A108L24, RU000A108LX6, RU000A108NQ6) of CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW assigned under the national scale for the Russian Federation were published by ACRA for the first time on July 24, 2018, March 18, 2024, April 23, 2024, September 10, 2024, September 10, 2024, and September 10, 2024, respectively.
The credit rating of CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW and its outlook and the credit ratings of the bond issues are expected to be revised within one year.
The credit ratings were assigned based on data provided by CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW, information from publicly available sources, and ACRA’s own databases. The rating analysis was performed using the IFRS accounting (financial) statements of CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW as of June 30, 2025 and the financial statements of CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW drawn up in compliance with the Bank of Russia’s requirements.
The credit ratings are solicited and CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW participated in their assignment.
In assigning the credit ratings, 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 CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW during the year preceding the rating action.
No conflicts of interest were discovered in the course of credit rating assignment.
