Moody's on March 15 upgraded JSCB with Foreign Capital Hamkorbank's long-term local currency deposit rating to B1 from B2, with the outlook changed to stable from positive, and its baseline and adjusted baseline credit assessments to "b1" from "b2."

The rating agency also upgraded the Uzbek lender's long-term local currency counterparty risk rating to Ba3 from B1 and its long-term counterparty risk assessment to Ba3(cr) from B1(cr), while affirming various other ratings, including the B2 long-term foreign-currency deposit rating and B1 long-term foreign-currency counterparty risk rating.

The ratings actions reflect the lender's robust financial performance and the agency's expectation that its metrics — namely sound asset quality, strong profitability and stable funding and liquidity profile — will remain better than the rest of the Uzbek banking sector's reported stats on average. The actions also reflect planned investment of foreign capital that is expected to underpin its business expansion.