Representatives of Central Bank of Uzbekistan, Uzbekistan Banking Association and local commercial banks participated at the work of the conference.

Shukhrat Haydarov, deputy chairperson of the Board of Central Bank of Uzbekistan, said that the ratings improve trust of population, investors and creditors to banks.

He said that the rating allow local banks to enter local banking services to international banking services markets.

He added that currently 26 banks of Uzbekistan have ratings from international rating agencies, while five of them obtain ratings from two agencies.

According to Fitch Ratings, the agency assigned ratings to six bank of Uzbekistan – Agrobank, Asaka Bank, Microcreditbank, Uzpromstroyank, Trustbank and Universalbank.

Associate director of the banking analytical group Fitch Ratings Dmitry Abramov said that strong economic growth and low level of public debt in Uzbekistan positively impact ratings of the Uzbek banks.

According to Fitch Ratings, Uzbekistan’s GDP grew by 8.7% in average in last five years, while public debt made up 9.1% to GDP in 2011. High prices for commodities (gold, copper, gas, etc) help Uzbekistan to increase income.

Current account surplus, according to estimates of Fitch Ratings, made up 19.8% to GDP in 2011 compared to 14.6% to GDP in 2010. The reserves level makes up about 35% to GDP. Dmitry Abramov underlined that despite fast growth of loan portfolio of the bank, the banking sector size is small compared to the size of economy of Uzbekistan.

Speaking about funding of the banks, he said that internal resources are main source of funding of the banks. These are corporate deposits, funds of Ministry of Finance and state agencies (Fund for Reconstruction and Development of Uzbekistan, etc).

According to Fitch Ratings estimates, share of foreign borrowings makes up only 10% of the banks’ liabilities. Abramov said that the resources of population demonstrate growth, however they makes up only about 25% of total deposits.

During the meeting, the participants considered issues of introducing modern system of assessment and analysis of activities of commercial banks and financial-banking system based on international norms, criteria and standards, used by international rating agencies.

The recommendations, developed at the conference, will be used to deepen reforms and improve sustainability of the financial-banking system in Uzbekistan.