Mubasher: Moody's Investors Service has withdrawn the credit ratings placed to International Bank of Qatar (IBQ), following the completion of the legal merger with Barwa Bank on 21 April 2019.

Upon the merger deal, all assets and liabilities of IBQ have been transferred to Barwa, therefore, IBQ will no longer exist as a separate legal entity.

Moody's Investors Service has withdrawn the ‘A2’ and ‘P-1’ ratings of the local and foreign currency long-term and short-term deposit, respectively, the ‘baa3’ baseline credit assessment (BCA) and the adjusted BCA, A1(cr)/P-1(cr) Counterparty Risk Assessments and A1/P-1 Counterparty Risk Ratings.

At the time of the withdrawal, the long-term deposit ratings of IBQ carried a ‘Stable’ outlook.

“Moody's has decided to withdraw the ratings for its own business reasons,” a press release by the rating agency stated.

International Bank of Qatar holds approximately 2% market share in assets with a reported QAR 35.1 billion worth of consolidated asset base by the end of December 2018.

Moody’s noted that the withdrawals of IBQ’s ratings are as follows:

.. Adjusted Baseline Credit Assessment, withdrawn, previously rated baa3

.. Baseline Credit Assessment, withdrawn, previously rated baa3

.. Long-term Counterparty Risk Assessment, withdrawn, previously rated A1(cr)

.. Short-term Counterparty Risk Assessment, withdrawn, previously rated P-1(cr)

.. Long-term Counterparty Risk Rating, withdrawn, previously rated A1

.. Short-term Counterparty Risk Rating, withdrawn, previously rated P-1

.. Long-term Bank Deposits, withdrawn, previously rated A2, outlook changed to Rating Withdrawn from Stable

.. Short-term Bank Deposits, Withdrawn, previously rated P-1