Capital Intelligence rating agency has affirmed the ratings assigned to Kuwait Finance House (KFH). Foreign Currency Long and Short term ratings are ‘A+’ and ‘A1’ respectively, and its Financial Strength Rating is ‘BBB+’, based on several positive factors. The agency asserted in its report that KFH has a strong financial status, due to the support of the government and the shareholders. It noted that such positive ratings reflect the strength of the capital base and the diversification of sources of revenues. Moreover, the agency mentioned that KFH is a large and systemically important bank within the Kuwaiti banking sector, and has significant banking operations elsewhere in the GCC and the wider MENA region. It stressed that KFH has no difficulty in growing customer deposits when it wishes, and that it will benefit from the economic recovery in Kuwait and Bahrain, in addition to the positive performance of the economies of Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Meanwhile, ¬¬Acting CEO Emad Al-Thaqeb stated that maintaining the credit rating of KFH is a significant achievement; especially after the global and local economic challenges that affected various revenue sectors. This led to the deterioration of the ratings of global banks, while KFH managed to maintain its positive ratings, which highlights KFH’s robust financial status. He added that such ratings show KFH’s ability to accomplish better growth rates in all main indicators, if the local business environment improves along with governmental reformative steps, since KFH has all strategic plans required to work for the benefit of KFH’s shareholders and investors. Furthermore, he said that KFH takes pride in the support it receives from its shareholders in all circumstances, and also in the efforts exerted by the employees in following the set plans to the letter. He revealed that KFH continued to grow in most main financial indicators, where the budget of the First Half of this year reflected that growth; especially that KFH excelled among other local banks in the field of operating income and the increase in total of deposits. In addition, there was an increase in total assets and shareholders’ equity. He went on to say that the bank has integrated plans and strategies that it constantly reviews to maintain such excellent performance, and to limit any negative consequences.