Moody’s affirms rating of five Pakistan’s commercial banks to stable

The five banks, whose rating revised are Allied Bank Limited, Habib Bank Ltd, MCB Bank Limited, National Bank of Pakistan and United Bank Ltd.

The rating actions follow Moody’s decision on 14 July to affirm the Caa1 rating for the Government of Pakistan and change the outlook on the sovereign rating to stable from negative.

The bank rating actions take into account a stabilization of the government’s risk profile and its capacity to support the banks, and the high underlying inter-linkages between the banks’ standalone credit risk profiles and that of the sovereign, owing to their high lending concentrations to the government and to government related entities.