Kuwait – Mubasher: Moody's Investors Service upgraded Kuwait's Gulf Bank K.S.C.P long-term deposit ratings to A3 from Baa1 and the standalone baseline credit assessment (BCA) to ba1 from ba2.

The bank's short-term deposit ratings were affirmed at Prime-2.

Moody's has revised the outlook on long-term ratings to stable from positive.

According to the research firm, the rating action is driven by: continuing improvements in asset quality and provisioning coverage; the strengthening of the bank's risk management practices and a further reduction of balance sheet risk, which Moody's expects will contain the risk of a resurgence in NPL formation; and the rating agency's expectation that core profitability will remain resilient and capitalisation buffers will remain adequate driven by a conservative implementation of Basel III capital requirements by Kuwait's central bank.