Andbank is once again the highest- rated bank in Andorra with a BBB rating from Fitch

Escaldes-Engordany, 23 July 2024.

Fitch Ratings has confirmed Andbank’s BBB rating with a stable outlook, making it once again the highest-rated bank in Andorra.

The rating agency cited the bank’s moderate risk profile, conservative liquidity management, asset quality, international scale, expertise in private banking, and adequate capitalisation and profitability as key factors in its assessment.

In its report, Fitch highlights Andbank’s expertise in private banking and the “moderate” credit risk of its highly collateralised loan portfolio, which consists mainly of Lombard and mortgage loans granted to an affluent client segment. In this respect, the agency highlights the bank’s low NPL ratio and points out that it has less exposure to the real estate sector than its domestic peers.

Fitch also highlights Andbank’s international dimension – “the largest bank in the Principality in terms of assets under management” – and its size, with a significant presence in Spain and larger than that of its Andorran peers, which supports the bank’s appropriate profitability and earnings generation.

The focus on private banking also supports capitalisation and profitability. Fitch underlines the bank’s appropriate profitability, highlighting the improvement in operating profit, its solid capitalisation – “which provides a suitable capital cushion for its business model” – and its conservative liquidity management, supported by a large portfolio of liquid assets and sustained growth in customer deposits.

Andbank closed 2023 with a 33% increase in profits to over EUR 40 million, and with a turnover of EUR 41,550 million, an increase of 21%. The entity is experiencing strong growth and currently manages a business volume of more than EUR 46.5 billion.