Standard & Poor’s Rating Services said it has revised its ratings on 18 Russian banks and their core subsidiaries and raised ratings on eight Russian banks after applying new ratings criteria for banks, which was published on November 9, 2011, designed to provide a more accurate estimate of their financial capability.

Its long-term rating of Alfa Bank has been raised from BB- to BB, the national scale rating from ruAB- to ruAA, and the outlook, to Stable from Positive.The ratings of Bank Rossia are up to BB/ruA from BB-/ruA-, and the outlook is Stable. The agency has raised ratings of Uralsib bank and the MDM-bank from BB- to B+ with Stable outlook. S&P has raised the Globex Bank’s rating from BB- to BB/Stable, and from ruAB- to ruAA. Krayinvestbank’s ratings have been upgraded from B+ to B, its national scale rating affirmed at ruA, as the outlook has been changed from Positive to Stable. Sviaz-bank rose from BB- to BB/Stable and from ruAB- to ruAA. TransCreditBank was upgraded from BB+ to BBB-/Stable and from ruAA+ to ruAAA. MDM Bank grew from B+ to BB-/Stable and assigned a ruAB- national scale rating.

Ratings of other ten banks, among them Gazprombank, Bank VTB, Raiffeisenbank, Petrocommerce, Russian Standard, and some of their subsidiaries have not been changed.