Riyadh – Mubasher: Fitch Ratings has affirmed Gulf International Bank - Saudi Arabia's (GIB SA) Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at "BBB+" with a stable outlook.

The rating reflects Fitch’s view of a high probability of support for the bank, if required, from the Saudi authorities, according to Fitch’s recent report. 

"Fitch's assessment takes into account a long record of support for Saudi banks, continued government willingness to maintain stability in the domestic financial system and a strong ability to support the banking system given large external reserves and good access to external markets," the report added.

Fitch’s rating also reflects the bank's lower systemic importance relative to some larger Saudi banks due to the bank's smaller size, market share and franchise.

This results in GIB SA, which is owned equally by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) and GIB, not being considered a domestic systemically important bank (D-SIB) in Saudi Arabia by Fitch, and in its SRF being one notch below the D-SIB SRF of "A-".