CRRH-UEMOA, WAEMU’s best-rated institution by Moody's, after BOAD and AfDB
Monday, 22 February 2021 12:44 
(Togo First) - The Caisse Regionale de Refinancement Hypothecaire (CRRH-UEMOA), based in Lome, becomes the third best-rated financial institution by Moody's in the West Africa Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). The other institutions are the West African Development Bank ( BOAD) and the African Development Bank (AfDB).
Indeed, Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") assigned the following first-time ratings to CRRH-UEMOA in 2020: Ba2 long-term corporate family rating (CFR), Ba2/Not Prime long and short-term local currency (LC) issuer ratings, as well as Ba3/Not Prime long and short-term foreign currency (FC) issuer ratings.
Moody's explains the CRRH-UEMOA ratings by the strong asset quality underpinned by conservative structuring of its lending, and its solid levels of capitalization with a TCE (tangible common equity) to tangible managed assets ratio (excluding subordinated debt) which stood at 7.6% as of December 2019 (7.0% as of December 2018).
With an assessment that places it in the "Non-investment grade speculative" category, the CRRH-UEMOA still has a way to go to reach the top of Moody's rating system (Prime or High-Grade Categories, from Aa3 to Aaa). It nevertheless has one of the best grades in the sub-region, with, for example, “only” 4 ratings below from the BOAD’s Baa1.
The institution wants to position itself with this grade as "one of the best institutions in the Area," especially since Moody's rating allows it to be viewed as "the best issuer rated in WAEMU after BOAD (Baa1-) and AfDB (AAA) .” The AfDB is by far one of the best-rated entities on the continent.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
