NOMOS-BANK comments on change of outlook by Fitch and Moody’s

Taking into account a number of inquiries from various counterparties relating to the change of outlook on NOMOS-BANK’s ratings by Fitch and Moody’s we would like to kindly draw your attention to the following.

The change of the outlook on NOMOS-BANK’s ratings from “stable” to “negative” by the international rating agencies reflects purely the opinion of the rating agencies. This does not indicate any worsening of NOMOS-BANK’s financial standing nor any disability to service our debt. Neither long-term nor short-term ratings of NOMOS have been downgraded and remain on previous levels. The rating actions indicate the agencies’ concern relating to the general economic environment in Russia and their opinion on the possibility of reduction in asset quality for all Russian banks. The overall change in Russia’s sovereign ratings serves as an illustration of the agencies’ positions.

Furthermore, negative rating actions have been taken by the international rating agencies in respect to the majority of Russian financial institutions. This can be seen from a number of recent official publications by Fitch and Moody’s. This comes as an expected step after the review of Russia’s sovereign ratings.

NOMOS has demonstrated good financial performance and asset quality which is reflected in the official reporting results. As per the preliminary end—2008 IFRS results the profit is estimated at RUB 3.6 billion despite an increase in provisioning. The figure for non-performing loans stands at 1.6% of the total loan portfolio which is substantially lower than the same indicators of banks from our peer group. Moreover, NOMOS is also among the top Russian banks that have been officially qualified for government support.

It is worthy to add that NOMOS-BANK has been assigned substantially high credit ratings by the two largest Russian domestic rating agencies: the National Rating Agency and RusRating. RusRating has recently upgraded NOMOS-BANK’s ratings to “BBB” stable (see http://www.rusrating.ru/en/...) which means relatively high degree of creditworthiness. And the National Rating Agency has assigned a “AA+” rating to NOMOS-BANK (see http://www.ra-national.ru/?page=raiting-bank-individual/) which means very high creditworthiness. This serves as a vivid indicator of our firm position in the Russian market and in the Russian banking community as a whole.

The most recent IFRS Report and additional relevant information can be found on the official website.