Kuwait, 10 December 2023. Moody’s Investors Service, the international credit rating agency, has affirmed the A3 long-term deposit ratings of Gulf Bank and changed the outlook to “Positive” from “Stable”. Moody's has affirmed the Baseline Credit Assessment (BCA) and the Adjusted BCA of Gulf Bank at ba1, long-term and short-term foreign and local currency Counterparty Risk Ratings at A2/P-1, and long-term and short-term Counterparty Risk Assessments at A2(cr)/P-1(cr).

In their recently published press release, Moody’s mentioned that the affirmation of Gulf Bank’s ratings reflects the Bank's strong asset quality, sound profitability, loss absorption capacity and healthy liquidity buffers. These strengths balance the bank’s borrower and depositor concentration risks. The affirmation also takes into consideration Moody’s unchanged assumption of the very high probability of support from the Government of Kuwait (A1 stable) for Gulf Bank’s depositors at times of stress.

Positive Outlook

According to Moody’s, the change of Gulf Bank’s outlook to positive captures their expectation that the Bank's strong asset quality, recovering profitability and stronger capital position, if sustained could drive an upgrade of Gulf Bank’s ratings and assessments.

Commenting on Moody’s Bank credit rating announcement, Ms. Dalal Al-Dousari, Gulf Bank’s Deputy General Manager of Investor Relations said: “We are very pleased to receive the affirmation of Gulf Bank’s A3 long-term deposit ratings and the “Positive” change of the Bank’s outlook by Moody’s Investors Service. This is an international acknowledgement of Gulf Bank’s sound capitalization, improving profitability and strong asset quality “

Gulf Bank continues to be well recognized in terms of its credit worthiness and financial strength internationally as it is rated ‘A’ by three major credit rating agencies. In addition to Moody’s Investor Services recent affirmation and outlook change, Gulf Bank has a Long-Term Issuer Default Rating at “A” with a “Stable” Outlook by Fitch Ratings, and a Long-term Foreign Currency Rating of “A+” with a “Stable” Outlook by Capital Intelligence Ratings.