Moody's Investors Service has today assigned ratings to the US$4.0 billion Euro Medium Term Note Programme (EMTN) of Gulf International Bank B.S.C (GIB). Moody's has assigned ratings of A3 and Baa1 to the senior unsecured and subordinated notes, respectively, to be issued under the programme. The ratings of the notes carry a stable outlook.

Moody's added that GIB's A3 deposit rating is based on the bank's standalone financial strength (represented by a D+ bank financial strength rating mapping to a Ba1 baseline credit assessment) as well as four notches of uplift reflecting an assessment of the likelihood of support for the bank in case of need from its majority owner, the Government of Saudi Arabia.

Moody's previous rating action on GIB was on 6 April 2009 when it confirmed the bank's A3/Prime-2/D+ ratings, with a stable outlook.

The principal methodologies used in rating Gulf International Bank were Moody's "Bank Financial Strength Ratings: Global Methodology" (February 2007) and "Incorporation of Joint-Default Analysis into Moody's Bank Ratings: A Refined Methodology" (March 2007), and available on www.moodys.com in the Rating Methodologies sub-directory under the Research & Ratings tab. Other methodologies and factors that may have been considered in the process of rating the bank can also be found in the Rating Methodologies sub-directory on Moody's website.

GIB is headquartered in Manama, Bahrain and at the end of June 2009 had total assets of US$17.12 billion

Global Arab Network