On December 15, 2021, Moody’s Investors Service (“Moody’s”) announced its decision to upgrade the long-term deposit rating of ForteBank JSC to Ba2 from Ba3, the outlook is “Stable”. Previous upgrade of the Bank’s rating by Moody’s took place in December 2020. Back then, the agency upgraded the long-term deposit rating of ForteBank to Ba3 from B1, the outlook was “Stable”.

This is not the first positive ratings action for ForteBank JSC in 2021. In September 2021, S&P Global Ratings international rating agency revised ForteBank’s ratings outlook to “Positive” from “Stable” , raised national scale rating from “kzBBB” to “kzBBB+” and affirmed the long-term and short-term ratings at “B+/B”. Fitch Ratings agency, in its turn, upgraded the Bank’s long-term rating to “B+” from “B” and revised the outlook from “Stable” to “Positive”.

According to Moody’s analysts, this rating action recognizes substantially decreased uncertainties over the Bank's asset risk, following the sharp contraction in problem loans since the beginning of this year. The rating action also recognizes improvement in the Bank's core profitability and Forte's maturing business profile.

Note: ForteBank ranks among the top five largest banks of Kazakhstan and is one of the most stable, liquid and well-capitalized banks in the country. The Bank has 20 branches and about 100 outlets. The Bank was awarded by the leading international periodicals for multiple times. Thus, during the last 12 months, ForteBank has been recognized as the best bank in Kazakhstan according to Euromoney, Asiamoney and Global Finance.

Contacts

Investor Relations Tel. +7 (7172) 58 75 75 (ext. 10249) E-mail: IR@fortebank.com

Press Office Tel.: +7 (7172) 59 99 99 (ext. 10868, 10975)