Moody's on Dec. 13 changed the long-term deposit ratings' outlook on Raiffeisenbank (Bulgaria) EAD to positive from stable.

At the same time, the agency affirmed the bank's Not-Prime short-term deposit ratings and the Ba3 long-term local- and foreign-currency deposit ratings. In addition, the rating agency upgraded the bank's baseline credit assessment to "ba3" from "b1" and affirmed its adjusted BCA at "ba3" and its counterparty risk assessments at Baa3(cr)/Prime-3(cr).

The upgrade in the BCA results from an improvement in the bank's financial fundamentals, especially asset quality, liquidity metrics, capital buffers and profitability.

The agency expects further improvement in the bank's financial fundamentals, supported by Bulgaria's stabilizing economic conditions. Also, there is a possibility of an upgrade of the bank's Ba3 deposit ratings, if the BCA of Raiffeisen Bank International AG is upgraded to "ba2" from "ba3."