The FINANCIAL -- Moody's Investors Service on December 15 downgraded the long-term local and foreign currency deposit ratings of Russia's Gazinvestbank (GINB) to C from Caa1.

The bank's E bank financial strength rating (BFSR) and Not Prime short-term local and foreign currency deposit
ratings were affirmed. At the same time, Moody's Interfax Rating Agency downgraded GINB's long-term national scale credit rating (NSR) to C.ru from Ba3.ru. MOSCOW -based Moody's Interfax is majority-owned by Moody's.
All ratings are now at their lowest possible level and the outlook on the global scale ratings is stable.

The assigned ratings of C reflect Moody's expectation of a loss of more than 50% for GINB's senior unsecured creditors, except for private individuals with deposits with the bank in the amount up to RUB700,000 (US$25,000), which are eligible for 100% repayment by the State corporation Deposit Insurance Agency. According to Moody's, the rating action was triggered by the withdrawal of GINB's banking licence by the
Central Bank of Russia (CBR) on 4 December 2008 "due to presentation of non-true financial reporting to the regulator and inability to meet obligations to creditors". Today's downgrades conclude the review for possible downgrade initiated on the affected ratings on 21 November 2008.

The principal methodologies used in rating GINB are "Bank Financial Strength Ratings: Global Methodology" and "Incorporation of Joint-Default Analysis into Moody's Bank Ratings: A Refined Methodology", which can be
found at www.moodys.com in the Credit Policy & Methodologies directory, in the Ratings Methodologies subdirectory. Other methodologies and factors that may have been considered in the process of rating GINB can
also be found in the Credit Policy & Methodologies directory.

Headquartered in MOSCOW , Russia, Gazinvestbank reported total assets of USD216 million under IFRS as at 31 March 2008.

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