...Ratings Reflect Operating Environment: Bank of Jordan's (BOJ) Long-Term IDR is driven by the bank's intrinsic strength as indicated by its Viability Rating (VR). BOJ is essentially a domestic bank, and its ratings are highly correlated with, and constrained by, the still difficult (although improving) operating environment in Jordan, due to the bank's domestic focus and largely domestic loan and securities book. Solid Domestic Franchise: BOJ has a solid domestic franchise, especially in the corporate segment. It accounted for 4.8% and 5.7% of total domestic banking system assets and loans, respectively at end-2014. Sound, Improving Asset Quality: Asset quality is sound, and the NPL ratio has been improving since 2012; at end-1Q15 it reached 6.6% (net of interest in suspense). The ratio is in line with the average for Jordanian banks. Reserve coverage improved and was satisfactory at 99% at end-1Q15. BOJ also holds reasonable levels of collateral (mostly real estate) against impaired loans....
