...Philippine National Bank's (PNB) Baa3 long-term foreign-currency deposit rating and senior unsecured bank debt rating reflect its weak, but improving, asset quality, mitigated by improved profitability, adequate capital, as well as its strong liquidity and funding. Its ratings are one notch above its ba1 Baseline Credit Assessment (BCA), reflecting our assumption of a high likelihood of support from the Government of the Philippines (Baa2 stable). The outlook on the bank's ratings is positive. The bank's ratings also take into consideration the strengthening in its core profitability, as well as the post-pandemic improvement in its asset quality, which in turn has reduced risks to capital. However, risks to asset quality still resides in a few large pandemic-related exposures as well as unseasoned loans arising from its accelerated growth in the small and medium-sized (SME) and retail segments....