Bank of Valletta plc - Fitch Upgrades BOV’s Ratings

On 28 March 2025, BOV announced that Fitch Ratings has upgraded Bank of Valletta’s Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to ‘BBB’ from ‘BBB-‘ and the Viability Rating (VR) to ‘bbb’ from ‘bbb-‘. The rating agency also set the outlook on the Long-Term IDR as Stable. Fitch has also assigned BOV a long-term deposit rating of ‘BBB+’ and short-term deposit rating of ‘F2’.

BOV noted that the announcement by Fitch acknowledged BOV’s dominant domestic franchise, which has allowed the bank to consistently capture the profitable business opportunities offered by Malta’s benign operating environment, while maintaining adequate asset quality and capitalisation. Furthermore, the ratings reflect BOV’s leading domestic franchise, which contributes to the bank’s sound earnings generation despite limited business diversification, but also its small scale and concentrated operations in a small economy. Fitch recognised BOV’s lending standards and investment guidelines which are in line with global industry practices, and its risk framework has strengthened in line with regulatory expectations.

BOV also highlighted that this upgrade follows another upgrade in December 2024 by Standards & Poor’s (S&P) Global Ratings, which raised the long- and short-term issuer credit ratings on BOV to BBB/A-2 from BBB-/A-3. S&P Global Ratings also increased the long-term resolution counterparty rating (RCR) to BBB+ from BBB and affirmed an A-2 short-term RCR.