Slovenia?s largest bank, Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB), continues to show solid financial performance and relatively strong asset quality despite economic uncertainties affecting its core markets in Southeastern Europe (SEE). The bank is committed to its "Strategy 2030", which foresees expansion in SEE, business model diversification, and the upgrade of its operating model, aimed to double its balance sheet and after-tax profits by 2030. Despite high balance sheet growth in recent years, NLB maintained sound capitalization and its solid funding franchise. We think the bank has been outperforming peer banks with a stand-alone credit profile of ?bbb-?. We therefore raised our long-term issuer credit rating (ICR) on NLB to 'BBB+? from ?BBB? and all our issue ratings on the bank by
