ProCredit Bank Georgia’s director, Elene Tsintsadze, says the bank now holds the highest possible credit rating in the country, following Fitch Ratings’ decision to upgrade its outlook from negative to stable while affirming the long-term rating at BB+. She noted that the bank’s rating is one notch above Georgia’s sovereign rating and higher than that of many competitors, a rare achievement in the local market.
According to Tsintsadze, Fitch’s assessment is largely driven by strong and reliable support from the bank’s sole shareholder, ProCredit Holding, which itself has an investment-grade rating. Although the Georgian subsidiary cannot exceed the sovereign ceiling, Fitch recognizes the holding’s proven track record of providing full support to its banks across 11 countries, including in high-risk environments. She added that ProCredit’s conservative risk management, strong asset quality, and above-average capitalization were equally important factors behind the strong rating.
Commenting on the structure of Georgia’s banking sector, where two major banks control about 80% of the market — Tsintsadze said smaller players face challenges and regulators should consider more proportional regulation. She pointed to cases where equal compliance requirements impose unequal burdens, especially in areas involving costly technology, as well as differences in reserve requirements and other regulatory parameters that disproportionately affect mid-sized banks like ProCredit.
Tsintsadze also addressed concerns about the bank’s relatively high dollarization level, explaining that 90% of its portfolio consists of SME loans, a segment that naturally carries similar FX dynamics across the market. She emphasized that ProCredit applies much stricter internal risk rules than the industry standard, such as stress-testing customer income by 30% when the loan and income currencies differ. These precautions, she said, have repeatedly proven effective during COVID-19, the onset of the Ukraine war, and other periods of currency volatility, ensuring the bank’s portfolio remained highly stable.
