On Sept. 17, 2018, we downgraded Tsesnabank to 'B', and assigned a negative outlook, due to the bank's diminished liquidity cushion. Because we consider Tsesnabank's insurance subsidiary Tsesna-Garant to be insulated from its parent, and the insurer's stand-alone credit quality remains better than that of the bank, we cap our ratings on the insurer at one notch above the group credit profile. Consequently, we are revising the outlook on Tsesna-Garant to negative from stable and affirming the ratings at 'B+'. At the same time, we are lowering the national scale rating on Tsesna-Garant to 'kzBBB' from 'kzBBB+'. The negative outlook on Tsesna-Garant mirrors that on Tsesnabank. On Sept. 20, 2018, S&P Global Ratings revised its outlook to negative from stable
