The Bank of Belize Limited

RATING ACTION:

On December 6, 2023, CariCRIS upgraded the assigned Issuer/ Corporate credit ratings by 2 notches to CariBBB- (Local and Foreign Currency) on the regional scale and reaffirmed the Belize national scale rating of bzAA+ (Local Currency) to The Belize Bank Limited. Outlook revised to stable.

 RATING SENSITIVITY FACTORS:

Factors that could, individually or collectively, lead to an improvement in the ratings and /or outlook include:

• Improvement in the ratings of the Government of Belize
• Increase in profitability to the order of 10% per annum over the next 2 years
• Improvement in asset quality with a NPL ratio of 2.5% over the next 2 years

Factors that could, individually or collectively, lead to a lowering of the ratings/or outlook include:

• Lowering of the ratings of the Government of Belize
• The occurrence of any factors that may contribute to the deterioration of the CAR below the 9% minimum requirement for the Bank
• Decrease in profitability to the order of 15% per annum over the next 2 years
• Deterioration in asset quality with a NPL ratio to 7.4% or more over the next 2 years
• Cost to income ratio weakens to 75% or more