{"id":4027,"date":"2026-10-30T08:45:57","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T08:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/30\/abbey-bank-retains-a3-short-term-credit-rating-as-capital-and-liquidity-position-strengthen\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T08:45:57","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T08:45:57","slug":"abbey-bank-retains-a3-short-term-credit-rating-as-capital-and-liquidity-position-strengthen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/30\/abbey-bank-retains-a3-short-term-credit-rating-as-capital-and-liquidity-position-strengthen\/","title":{"rendered":"Abbey Bank retains A3 short-term credit rating as capital and liquidity position strengthen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Abbey Bank Plc has retained its A3 short-term credit rating from Agusto &amp; Co., alongside a BBB- rating and Stable Outlook, reflecting its improved capitalisation and strong liquidity position as disclosed in the latest rating affirmation by Agusto &amp; Co. obtained by Nairametrics on Thursday, October 29, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>The rating affirmation by Agusto &amp; Co. stated that the bank\u2019s strengthened financial position, expanding franchise and growing earnings diversification are expected to support its credit profile and capacity to meet short-term obligations.<\/p>\n<p>The affirmation comes as Abbey Bank, formerly Abbey Mortgage Bank Plc, prepares to transition from a national mortgage bank into a regional commercial bank following approval from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in June 2026.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Abbey Bank liquidity exceeds requirements<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Abbey Bank maintained a strong liquidity position, with liquid assets of N148 billion representing approximately 89% of its N166 billion total assets as of December 31, 2025.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Its liquid assets-to-deposits ratio stood at 185.3%, substantially above the regulatory minimum of 20%, providing a significant buffer against short-term obligations.<\/li>\n<li>The bank retained an undrawn $20 million reverse repurchase agreement facility as of June 30, 2026, providing an additional liquidity buffer.<\/li>\n<li>Its non-performing loan ratio declined to 4.1% in June 2026 from 7.2% at the end of 2025 and 7.7% in 2024.<\/li>\n<li>The improvement in asset quality was supported by continued loan recoveries and prudent loan origination.<\/li>\n<li>Agusto &amp; Co. affirmed the bank\u2019s A3 short-term rating and BBB- rating, with a Stable Outlook.<\/li>\n<li>The latest rating extends the improvement previously reported by Nairametrics in November 2025, when Abbey Bank received an A3 rating from Agusto &amp; Co. and GCR Ratings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>At the time, its non-performing loan ratio had declined to 8.1% as of July 2025 from 13.5% in December 2023, while its core capital ratio stood at 27.8%.<\/p>\n<p>The latest decline in non-performing loans, alongside the bank\u2019s substantial liquidity buffers, supports its strengthened credit profile.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>N64.5 billion capital raise supports expansion<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Abbey Bank\u2019s N64.5 billion equity raise is expected to strengthen its capital base and support its transition into regional commercial banking.<\/p>\n<p>The bank received regulatory approval for the capital raise in August 2026, following shareholders\u2019 approval of a private placement and additional fundraising plans.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The private placement involves 26.56 billion ordinary shares priced at N2.43 each, according to Nairametrics\u2019 earlier report on the bank\u2019s annual general meeting notice.<\/li>\n<li>The transaction would increase issued share capital from approximately N5.08 billion to N18.36 billion, nearly tripling the existing amount.<\/li>\n<li>Shareholders also authorised the board to raise an additional N100 billion through equity and debt instruments.<\/li>\n<li>Abbey Bank recorded a pre-tax profit of N3.12 billion in 2025, while first-quarter 2026 pre-tax profit increased by 108.79% to N750.28 million.<\/li>\n<li>The additional capital is intended to support the bank\u2019s expansion beyond mortgage financing into broader commercial banking services.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The bank expects its earnings base to become more diversified as it develops activities in construction lending, fixed-income trading, foreign currency transactions and trade finance.<\/p>\n<p>These developments form part of its strategy to strengthen profitability while maintaining prudent risk management and financial discipline.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Abbey Bank targets November launch<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Abbey Bank plans to commence regional commercial banking operations in November 2026, following the CBN\u2019s approval of its licence transition in June.<\/p>\n<p>The planned expansion will cover the South-West, South-South and North-West regions, alongside the Federal Capital Territory, broadening the bank\u2019s operations beyond its traditional mortgage banking activities.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The new commercial banking licence will allow Abbey Bank to offer a wider range of banking services beyond mortgage financing.<\/li>\n<li>Its planned business expansion includes construction lending, trade finance, fixed-income trading and foreign currency transactions.<\/li>\n<li>Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Mobolaji Adewumi described the rating affirmation as an endorsement of the bank\u2019s financial resilience, liquidity strength and strategic direction.<\/li>\n<li>Adewumi said<em> \u201cmanagement remains focused on building a stronger, more diversified and customer-centric bank while maintaining prudent risk management and sound financial discipline.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The transition represents a significant development for Abbey Bank as it seeks to expand its franchise and strengthen its earnings capacity. Its strengthened capital position and improved asset quality provide a foundation for the planned commercial banking operations.<\/p>\n<p>However, the next important tests will be the November launch and how effectively the bank deploys its additional capital into loan growth and new revenue streams.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <\/p>\n<div class=\"nSourse\">Nairametrics<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Abbey Bank Plc has retained its A3 short-term credit rating from Agusto &amp; Co., alongside a BBB- rating and Stable Outlook, reflecting its improved capitalisation and strong liquidity position as&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4028,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}