Research Update: Erste Outlook Revised To Positive On Strengthened Capitalization And Resilient Performance; Affirmed At 'A+/A-1'

We think Erste Group Bank's (Erste's) creditworthiness has benefitted from strong results, increasing capitalization, and sound liquidity and funding metrics over recent years. Erste has maintained and consolidated its leading market franchise in Central and Eastern Europe, and we believe the bank's business diversification and financial performance should enable it to perform well through the cycle, supporting our comparison of the bank with peers with an 'a+' stand-alone credit profile. We therefore revised our outlook on Erste to positive from stable and affirmed our 'A+/A-1' long- and short-term issuer credit ratings. The positive outlook indicates that we could raise the ratings if the bank continues to demonstrate its ability to deliver solid results through the cycle, underlined by better metrics

...- We think Erste Group Bank's (Erste's) creditworthiness has benefitted from strong results, increasing capitalization, and sound liquidity and funding metrics over recent years. - Erste has maintained and consolidated its leading market franchise in Central and Eastern Europe, and we believe the bank's business diversification and financial performance should enable it to perform well through the cycle, supporting our comparison of the bank with peers with an 'a+' stand-alone credit profile. - We therefore revised our outlook on Erste to positive from stable and affirmed our 'A+/A-1' long- and short-term issuer credit ratings. - The positive outlook indicates that we could raise the ratings if the bank continues to demonstrate its ability to deliver solid results through the cycle, underlined by better metrics than similarly rated peers, such as sound asset quality, strong capitalization, continued business growth and increased deployment of its digital franchise....

Research Update