Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements continued Thousands of Georgian Lari 27. Risk Management continued Introduction continued Excessive risk concentration Concentrations arise when a number of counterparties are engaged insimilar business activities, or activities in the same geographic region, or these counterparties represent related parties to each other, or have similar economic features that would cause their ability to meet contractual obligations to be similarly affected by changes in economic, political or other conditions. Concentrations also involve combined, aggregate exposures of large and significant credits compared to the total outstanding balance of the respective financial instrument. Concentrations indicate the relative sensitivity of the Group’s performance to developments affecting a particular industry or geographical location. In order to avoid excessive concentrations of risks, the Group’s policies and procedures include specific guidelines to focus on maintaining a diversified portfolio of both financial assets as well as financial liabilities. Identified concentrations of credit risks or liquidity/repayment risks are controlled and managed accordingly. Credit risk Credit risk is the risk that the Group will incur a loss because its customers fail to discharge their contractual obligations. The Group manages and controls credit risk by setting limits on the amount of risk it is willing to accept for individual counterparties and for geographical, industry, product and currency concentrations, and by monitoring exposures in relation to such limits. The Group has established a credit quality review process to provide early identification of possible changes in the creditworthiness of counterparties, including regular collateral revisions. Counterparty limits are established by the use of a credit risk classification system, which assigns each counterparty a risk rating. Risk ratings are subject to regular revision. The credit quality review process allows the Group to assess the potential loss as a result of the risks to which it is exposed and take corrective action. The maximum credit exposure is limited to the carrying value of respective instruments and notional amounts of guarantees and commitments provided. There were no material changes in credit risk management practice at the Group as a consequence of the application of IFRS 9. Derivative financial instruments Credit risk arising from derivative financial instruments is, at any time, limited to those with positive fair values, as recorded in the statement of the financial position. Credit-related commitments risks The Group makes available to its customers guarantees and letters of credit which may require that the Group make payments on their behalf. Such payments are collected from customers based on the terms of the guarantee and letter of credit. They expose the Group to similar risks to loans and these are mitigated by the same control processes and policies. Credit quality per class of financial assets The credit quality of financial assets is managed by the Group through internal and external credit ratings used in ECL calculations. For corporate and SME loan portfolios the Group runs an internal rating model in which its customers are rated from 1 to 7 using internal grades. The models incorporate both qualitative and quantitative information and, in addition to information specific to each borrower, utilising supplemental external information that could affect the borrower’s behaviour. It is the Group’s policy to maintain accurate and consistent risk ratings across the credit portfolio. This facilitates focused management of the applicable risks and the comparison of credit exposures across all lines of business, geographic regions and products. The rating system is supported by a variety of financial analytics to provide the main inputs for the measurement of counterparty risk. All internal risk ratings are tailored to the various categories and are derived in accordance with the Group’s rating policy. Attributable risk ratings are assessed and updated regularly. 256 Annual Report 2018Bank of Georgia Group PLC