Bloomfield Investment Corporation has maintained unchanged the “A + with a stable outlook” rating awarded to NSIA Banque Côte d’Ivoire, the executives of the Abidjan-based rating agency said.
This structure also kept the short-term rating “A1 with a stable outlook” unchanged.
The rating is valid from August 2020 to July 2021. To justify its long rating and the outlook attached to it, Bloomfield refers to the bank’s high credit quality, adding that the protective factors are good . However, agency officials believe that the risk factors are more variable and more important in times of economic pressure.
In the short term, the rating is justified by the certainty of timely repayment which is very high. “The liquidity factors are strong and supported by good factors protecting the essential elements” underlines Bloomfield, who also notes that the risk factors are minor.
Bloomfield executives claim they based the rating on a few positive factors. They thus evoke a strengthening of governance reflected in particular by a proactive approach in risk management, a new 2020-2024 strategic plan based on digitization in a changing environment, an internal reorganization, aimed at accentuating the development of the bank. retail as well as the SME portfolio or the confirmation of good financial flexibility and a reduction in the cost of risk in 2019.
On the other hand, Bloomfield noted a few factors of weakness in the credit quality of NSIA Banque Côte d’Ivoire. This concerns the persistence of the problem of collecting long-term resources, an increase in the cost of interbank resources opposing the evolution of the interest margin, the decline in operating performance in a restrictive context and ” a health crisis affecting the bank’s mid-term performance in 2020.
