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Fitch Ratings-Moscow-03 April 2019: Fitch Ratings has affirmed Bank Centercredit's (BCC) Long-Term Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) at 'B-' with a Stable Outlook and simultaneously withdrawn all of the bank's ratings for commercial reasons. Fitch will no longer provide rating and analytical coverage of BCC. A full list of rating actions is at the end of this rating action commentary.

KEY RATING DRIVERS

BCC's IDRs and Support Rating are underpinned by the probability of support from the Kazakh authorities. Fitch recently re-assessed the state's propensity to support medium-sized Kazakh banks in light of the failure and resolution of the country's second-largest bank, Tsesnabank, and, as a consequence, revised BCC's Support Rating Floor (SRF) and downgraded the bank's support-driven IDRs (see "Fitch Revises 4 Kazakh Privately-Owned Banks' Support Rating Floors; Downgrades BCC and ATF" dated 12 March 2019).

Fich has affirmed BCC's Viability Rating (VR) at 'ccc', reflecting limited changes to the bank's credit profile since its last review in December 2018 (see "Fitch Affirms 6 Kazakh Financial Institutions; Downgrades ATF's & Centercredit's VRs" dated 10 December 2018). BCC's VR captures a large stock of legacy impaired loans and other high-risk assets, weak pre-impairment profitability and an insufficient core capital buffer. The bank has thus far made limited progress on resolving these risks. While its gross Stage 3 loans/gross loans ratio was down to 27% at end-2018 from 31% at end-1H18, unreserved net impaired loans stood at a high 1.7x of regulatory equity at end-2018 (end-1H18: 1.9x). The bank's funding profile remains stable and its dependence on state-related deposits has decreased since end-1H18.

RATING SENSITIVITIES

Not applicable.

The following ratings have been affirmed and withdrawn:

Long-Term Foreign- and Local-Currency IDRs: 'B-'; Outlooks Stable
Short-Term Foreign-Currency IDR: 'B'
National Long-Term Rating: 'BB-(kaz)'; Outlook Stable
Viability Rating: 'ccc'
Support Rating: '5'
Support Rating Floor: 'B-'
Senior unsecured debt: 'B-'/'BB-(kaz)'/'RR4'
Dated subordinated debt: 'CC'/'RR6'/'CCC(kaz)'
Perpetual debt: 'C'/'RR6'