Control questions and tasks. International rating agencies Foreign rating agencies

Rating agencies(RA) - organizations specializing in assessing the creditworthiness of issuers and the investment quality of issued securities. Based on the results of their research, agencies assign credit ratings.

In order to use the ratings correctly, it is necessary to understand that when ratings are issued, agencies primarily evaluate the probability of non-payment of the debt. At the same time, the ratings do not reflect a number of other factors that may be important for the borrower in the future, such as changes in the economic environment or problems with current liquidity.

RAs do not provide guarantees for the results of their research and do not disclose the methodology used in full.

Rating assignment is a commercial service. Its customers are states, companies, financial institutions. The presence of a rating gives issuers the opportunity to offer their securities to a wider range of investors, reduces interest rates, and also makes the borrower known and affects his reputation.

Thanks to the ratings, investors can get an independent opinion on the possibility of investing Money, reduce risks, compare securities in terms of risk-return ratio. At the same time, agencies monitor the solvency of borrowers not only at the time of assigning a rating, but throughout the entire period of cooperation, so investors have access to information about the reliability of their investments in virtually real time.

However, the disadvantage of RA is that their data is often late. Their undoubted failure was that they could not warn investors in time about problems in such companies as AIG, Enron, Lehman Bros., Parmalat, etc. The agencies were especially criticized as a result of the 2008 crisis, when investment ratings were assigned to companies that experienced serious financial difficulties and even caused a crisis in the American real estate market. It was then that for the first time a number of leading investors had doubts about the professional competence of the RA.

It is believed that the main reasons for failures in the work of the agencies were: the slow speed of response to events, the assumptions used in the methodology between the agencies themselves, as well as conflicts of interest when the rating is paid for by the state or the customer company interested in a positive assessment.

Historically, internationals are registered in the USA. This is due to the fact that American investment funds considered the largest participants in the capital market.

As for national RAs, it is believed that they can better take into account local specifics. The most famous Russian agencies are Moody's Interfax Rating Agency, AK & M,.

See what "Rating agencies" are in other dictionaries:

RATING AGENCIES- (English rating agencies) - international and national analytical services that make up integral risk indices of economic entities in terms of reliability as borrowers. R.a. evaluate the reliability of various kinds of debt obligations ... ... Financial and Credit Encyclopedic Dictionary

International rating agencies- (International rating agencies) Rating agencies are an organization that assesses the solvency of financial market entities. International rating agencies: credit rating countries, Fitch Ratings, Moody's, S&P, Morningstar,… … Encyclopedia of the investor

Credit rating and global rating agencies- The international rating agency S P for the first time in history downgraded the US credit rating from the maximum AAA to AA+; this event occurred after the prevention of a possible default in the US. A credit rating is an independent and reliable... Encyclopedia of Newsmakers

- (RA) - four agencies created in Russia and accredited by the Russian Ministry of Finance along with the "big three" international rating agencies: Expert RA, National Rating Agency (NRA), AK&M, RusRating. In addition, in Russia ... ... Banking Encyclopedia

European debt crisis- This article describes current events. Information can change rapidly as the event unfolds. You are viewing the article in a version dated December 13, 2012 14:59 (UTC). (… Wikipedia Wikipedia

Coupon- (Coupon) Coupon concepts, types of bonds, bond market Information about the concept of coupon, types of bonds, bond market Contents Contents Types of bonds bonds general characteristics and classification of bonds Corporate bonds… … Encyclopedia of the investor

National rating agency- This article should be wikified. Please format it according to the rules for formatting articles ... Wikipedia

What an investor needs to know about rating agencies

I will start with the definitions of a rating agency (hereinafter, for brevity, I will write RA): what is it and what do they do. These are large consulting companies that conduct a comprehensive assessment of creditworthiness, financial stability, as well as the quality of governance of public companies and entire countries (sovereign ratings), regions and large municipalities. Evaluation reports are not limited to cases within a company or country. For a comprehensive analysis, forecasts of macroeconomic trends, market conditions, as well as the ability of the subject to be assessed to withstand adverse external factors are required.

International rankings

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Based on the results of the audit, the object of verification is assigned a rating, the symbols of the most popular rating agencies are shown in the picture below. The principle for all ratings is the same: the closer to the beginning of the alphabet, the better; the fewer letters, the worse. For attractiveness, not only the rating itself is of great importance, but also the forecast for its change: positive, stable, negative. There is another classic rule worth mentioning: a company's rating cannot be higher than the country's sovereign rating.

Published ratings are guided in making investment decisions by national and commercial, the International Monetary Fund, investment and, as well as private investors. It is important to analyze this when placing your capital in the securities of certain issuers. The higher the rating, the lower the risk for the investor, the cost of borrowing for the issuer, and vice versa. Thus, the countries in a state of bankruptcy with a rating of D - default (Greece in 2010, Argentina in 1990, etc.) were forced to issue short-term government bonds with a yield of 20-25% per annum. Such papers are ignored by serious players, but for gambling speculators there is something to profit from here, at your own peril and risk. The benefit lies in the country's possible exit from the recession, or in the improvement financial indicators a separate company. With a high fixed , the speculator receives windfall profits.

But the risk of freezing your investments for a long time, with such a quality of securities, is very high. It is extremely important to have a public rating for retail companies. financial market(banks, management companies, pension funds, insurers). For them, the presence of a high rating is often a condition for survival, large clients choose partners, including based on ratings.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about financial brokers that are not rated and do not position this advantage in any way for the development of their brands. I attribute this to the fact that financial brokers in Russia are not public companies and do not raise capital in the corporate borrowing market. It is more important for them to prove their reputation by demonstrating licenses. The exception is brokers that are members of banking groups and post information on the ratings of parent structures on their website. Example - x, .

A broker-opening, on the contrary, does not use this opportunity: apparently, due to the fact that FG Opening has more low rating B+ from S&P. To obtain accreditation and gain a reputation in international markets, the RA must meet the following requirements:

• Independence from state and corporate institutions;
• Valuation methodology recognized by business and the international community;
• Availability of sufficient human resources to conduct a full analysis.

Now it is important for us to answer the question: why do private companies spend a lot of money on RA and knowingly expose themselves to reputational risk? After all, an audit can lead to a downgrade and a blow to competitive positions. Nevertheless, large public companies allocate budgets for the examination of the RA, which is carried out "on the machine" annually, regardless of whether the moment is favorable for the assessment or not. I will give the answer point by point so as not to miss important reasons:

• The ability to attract investments cheaper and easily restructure current liabilities;
• Increasing the value and popularity of corporate bonds;
• The positive impact of an increase in the rating on the growth of the exchange rate ;
• Prestige, customer confidence, the image of a transparent and open company.

RAs not only make a one-time assessment, but also constantly contact the governments of the countries being assessed and the management of client companies. When ordering an assessment, economic authorities and business owners count not only on the assignment of a particular rating, but also on the expert assistance of the RA in correcting the problems identified during the study.

big three

There are more than a hundred rating agencies in the world, but the so-called big three have dominated this business for the second century: the American Standard & Poor's (S&P, founded in 1860), Moody's (1900) and the Anglo-American Fitch Ratings (1913). I prefer to discard the conspiracy theories about the “dominance” of American companies in this market and find a more understandable explanation for this: the rating business comes from America and has great traditions there. Today, the big three are present in more than a hundred countries around the world and collect the lion's share of orders for financial analytics. And, although their combined share is gradually falling, the three agencies own about 95% of the world market and they compete for the most part among themselves.

All three agencies accredited by the Central Bank have offices in Moscow. They have the legal status of branches foreign companies, but from July 13, 2017 they are required to switch to the format subsidiary with Russian jurisdiction. The Russian-language websites of the Big Three agencies, where you can get acquainted with analytics and search for the ratings you are interested in, are here:

• S&P - spratings.com/en_US/topic/-/render/topic-detail/spotlight-on-russia-and-cis;
• Moody's - moodys.com/pages/default_ee.aspx;
• Fitch - fitchratings.com/site/russia.

In addition to multibillion-dollar contracts, the big three also receive numerous accusations of political partisanship. This is especially true for countries whose credit rating is downgraded to an unacceptable "junk" level for investors. This was the case with Greece in 2009-2012, with Russia in January 2014. “Offended” clients argue their arguments by the fact that the RA - commercial companies whose purpose is profit. The RAs themselves and their lawyers insist that independent analysis can only be trusted private company, which is not subordinate to officials and does not participate in geopolitics.

Doubts about the reliability of the analysis were also fueled in America itself in the wake of the crisis of 2007-2009, when experts from the Big Three did not give a timely forecast of a mortgage collapse and bankruptcy of the leading bank Lehman Brothers. They began to downgrade banks and corporations after the fact, following the situation, not warning it.

Moreover, employees who openly warned of an impending debt crisis were fired. Severe punitive sanctions in the amount of several billion dollars were imposed on the Big Three RAs, which are still being paid. It turned out to be a kind of "verification of the inspectors", which benefited the entire industry. The classical methods have been revised, the requirements for the financial performance of clients have been tightened. Today new system, which tightly regulates all financial institutions, is called Basel (by the name of the Swiss city in which the international agreement is signed).

In particular, the responsibility of the RA for the ratings assigned by them has been strengthened. The biggest shift can be considered a new trend, when not the assessed issuer itself pays for the study, but an investor who is interested in the analysis of this issuer.

The crisis contributed to the emergence of new players on the scene, including in Europe and Asia. Perhaps the most notable example is the Chinese national agency Dagong. China, representing the world's second largest economy and being the second international creditor after the US, has declared its rights to participate in the rating process.

However, the Chinese, having a state-controlled financial system, while they mainly evaluate themselves (fortunately, volumes allow), and on international market the same S&P, Moody's and Fitch continue to be in demand. Disputes about the degree of objectivity of such decisions will never stop, but truly alternative companies with the same authority and qualifications have not yet appeared on the global financial market.

Import substitution in the rating services market

New prospects for domestic agencies opened up in 2014, as part of the import substitution policy proclaimed by the state. Sanctions also played their role when, due to the inability to attract cheap money in the West, domestic companies' demand for the services of international RAs decreased.

Under the new trends began to be actively written the legislative framework. Main normative act today is the Law on the activities of credit rating agencies in the Russian Federation No. 222-FZ dated July 13, 2015, according to which all Russian players in this market are placed under close control of the Central Bank. International rating agencies are deprived of the right to revoke the ratings assigned on the national scale from Russian economic entities. Thus, the national rating is declared a priority in relation to the international one. comparison table rating scales are given below.

• S&P – BB+ positive outlook;
• Moody's – Ba1 stable outlook;
• Fitch – BBB outlook is stable.

The flip side of import substitution is the reduction in the presence of international agencies in Russia. Already, most of the functions have been transferred to specialists in New York and London, the Moscow offices are emptying. This does not necessarily mean that the Big Three will leave Russia. In 2015, the same was said about Visa and Mastercard, but they continued to do business with us. Now the big three are actively involved in the process of withdrawing ratings on the national scale from more than 150 Russian issuers and from the Russian Federation itself. There are many reports in the press about this, but I recommend that private investors treat this with restraint: the procedures are related to the implementation of the norms of the new law. All previously assigned international ratings will remain in effect.

Of the domestic RAs, only two are currently accredited by the Central Bank: Expert RA Rating Agency JSC raexpert.ru and Analytical Credit Rating Agency (ACRA) JSC acra-ratings.ru. Rus-Rating and the National Rating Agency (NRA) are in the stage of waiting and correcting the comments of the Central Bank. Inclusion in the register Central Bank is critical for Russian RAs. Without this, they will not be able to conduct a full-fledged activity. In particular, to assign ratings, and those, in turn, will not receive the right to attract public money.

Conclusion

To sum up the final questions: how relevant are the ratings in the analysis of issuers? Should we trust the ratings of the big three, especially given the blow to their reputation after the 2008 crisis? How to relate to the ratings assigned by Russian RAs, because their ratings are not of great value in the international capital market? IN general view I would answer like this.

Rating agency - a company that evaluates solvency financial institutions, quality of asset management, corporate management and timeliness of settlement of obligations. The most famous and demanded product of rating agencies is a credit rating. The indicator is calculated both in the context of a single company and for the state as a whole and expresses an assessment of solvency.

International rating agencies

International rating agencies play a strategic role in the global economy. Their evaluation activity forms the degree of trust in banking structures, the attractiveness of individual companies or entire states for investors, increases or decreases the chances of getting.

Despite the huge impact on world economy each rating agency was originally created and operates as a commercial structure. The main goal of such organizations is profit, regardless of whether they operate on an international or national scale. This fact is the main reason for doubts about the objectivity of rating agencies.

National rating agency

Today there are 4 accredited rating agencies in the Russian Federation. The National Rating Agency (hereinafter NRA) is considered one of the leading agencies Russian Federation. Despite the fact that the NRA has been operating since 2002, it was included by the Bank of Russia in the register of credit rating agencies only in 2019. The company has come a long way in its 14 years of operation. From a rating project in an experimental format, the organization has grown into an independent business project with a high level of efficiency and profitability.

Major rating agencies

The most authoritative in the rating of rating agencies are the so-called "big three" companies, including Fitch Ratings, Moody's, and Standard & Poor's. According to rough estimates, their reports account for approximately 95% of the entire market for international valuation services. It is these companies that assign credit ratings to the most demanded among investors companies and states. In fact, such opportunities give the main rating agencies influence on the economic and political situation on the world stage. Decisions made on credit ratings are often used as a lever of political pressure and are biased.

Credit rating agency

Credit rating agencies are engaged in calculating the creditworthiness of individual banking institutions. As a rule, studies are initiated by credit institutions on a paid basis, commercial basis. The assigned rating may be long-term or short-term and depends on the terms of the financial institution's borrowings.

Several different approaches are used in the methodology for compiling such ratings. Usually, we are talking on comparison of a number of financial indicators. There are also more complex schemes, according to which each criterion receives a certain specific gravity, and the final score is summarized as a total number of points.

Russian rating agencies

• "Expert RA"
• National Rating Agency (NRA)
• "National Credit Ratings" (NKR), created by RBC media holding

Difference between global and national ranking

In independent Russia, there has always been an objective need to create independent rating agencies. The reason is the inability of international agencies to give individual Russian companies a rating higher than that of the state as a whole.

Appraisal activity Russian companies costs much less. In addition, their assessment is considered more objective, since it takes into account the specifics of business in the Russian Federation. The services of domestic RAs, in particular, are in demand among companies that do not even plan to develop international markets.

Are rating agencies objective?

Every rating agency is a commercial organization that seeks to maximize own profit. This feature of RA prevents them from being completely objective. IN last years there are often cases of explicit or hidden corporate orders with specific tasks: to make a competitor's rating worse, and a particular company better. Very serious reports are bought for money. A striking example of this statement is the crisis of 2008-2009, when a whole group of corporations with impeccable ratings was on the verge of ruin.

Minimum requirements for rating agencies

1. Issuance of reliable and objective information based on historical data. The rating is subject to periodic review, and the methodology is changed every three years.
2. Independence. The ratings are free from economic pressure and political interference.
3. International access and openness.
4. The rating agency needs a sufficient number of staff to organize the process of analytical activities with objective results.
5. Rating agencies are officially recognized by regulatory authorities and the professional community.

How can a private investor use information from rating agencies?

The reputation of rating agencies was seriously shaken after the 2008 crisis. It turned out that companies with impeccable ratings are able to burst like bubble. For this reason, even the results of the Big Three reports should not be taken as the ultimate truth.

Moreover, a credit rating by itself has never been and never will be a recommendation to buy or sell any assets. Ratings show only one characteristic - the level of creditworthiness of individual companies or states. And even companies and states with AAA rating are subject to such a phenomenon as default. The difference is that among AAA-rated companies, bankruptcy cases will be sporadic, while among enterprises with lower bankruptcy rates, bankruptcy will recur much more often.

4.5 (90%) 4 vote[s]

When studying financial markets and news, one can notice that often when analyzing assets, reference is made to the credit ratings of the country / issuer. Let's figure out what it is, who sets these ratings, what consequences they have for changing them.

1. What is a credit score in simple words

rating agencies are commercial organizations. Moreover, the three largest and most influential are located in the United States, which already raises some doubts about the objectivity of grading. It is not for nothing that the most reliable securities in the world are US Treasury bonds (treasuries). However, you should not be so biased towards these agencies.

Agencies evaluate each issuer and, based on a set of factors, make a final conclusion regarding solvency. In fact, they assess the risks of insolvency, and this is very important for investors. For example, it could be a Debt/EBITDA multiple.

Large funds are guided by the values ​​of the ratings in the selection of assets. For example, many have a ban on buying shares and bonds of a country that is not included in the "investor" category.

2. How rating agencies rate

• Property status (structure of assets, structure of liabilities)
• Financial sustainability (autonomy ratio, inventory coverage, agility)
• Solvency (current, absolute and quick liquidity ratio)
• Business activity (asset turnover, receivables turnover)
• Profitability (return on assets, return on sales, ROE)

Perhaps some of them have additional mechanisms for rating. However, it should be said that in most cases their values ​​coincide with respect to their estimates.

Note

3. World rating agencies

1. Universal . Ratings are given to all industries.
2. Specialized. They are focused on individual sectors in the economy.

• Standard & Poors (S&P)
• Moody's
• Fitch Ratings

You can also highlight Morningstar and A.M. best company.

Since the three giants are in the US, the Europeans and Asians are trying to promote their rating agencies to create fairness and objectivity. However, so far their agencies are little known.

Let's take a closer look at the three largest rating agencies.

4. Rating agency Standard & Poors (S&P, Standard & Poors)

The rating can also have intermediate values ​​with a plus or minus sign. For example, "AA+" means that the value is closer to "AAA" than to "AA". Similarly with a minus: "BBB-" means that the value is closer to "BB" than to "A".

• Positive (Positive) - the value can be increased
• Negative - value can be lowered
• Stable - stable forecast
• Developing (Developing) - can be either an increase or a decrease

A prefix of two small letters can be added to the rating, which will indicate belonging to the country. For example, ruAAA.

• http://www.standardandpoors.com/home/en/us - English version of the site
• http://www.standardandpoors.com/home/ru/ru - Russian version of the site

5. Rating agency "Moody's" (Moody's)

Moody's Corporation was founded in the USA in 1900. The number of experts is more than 4500 people. It has 26 representative offices around the world.

The Moody's rating agency assigns international and national ratings. The main goal is not to determine the probability of default, but to understand the risks of losing investor funds when it occurs.

• 1 - is in the upper range
• 2 - is in the middle of the range
• 3 - is in the lower range

6. Rating agency "Fitch Ratings" (Fitch rating)

7. Pros and cons of credit ratings

• Reflects the current situation in the country or company. This information is extremely valuable for long-term investors.
• Rating information is available free of charge.
• Fairly promptly reviewed (at least 3 times during the year)

• Ratings cannot predict the collapse of the financial market or an individual company
• Ratings are not updated as often as investors would sometimes like. The markets are extremely dynamic and any delay even for a couple of days can cost a lot of money.

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Credit ratings assigned to banks by international rating agencies make it possible to judge their creditworthiness, financial stability, reliability and reputation. For ordinary consumers financial services- these indicators will probably say little about anything, but for the credit institutions themselves - this assessment is very important, trust in financial organization, the possibility of attracting borrowed money and conditions for obtaining loans. In general, based on the ratings, investors will make their decisions. And, ultimately, these financial decisions will determine at what price banks will lend to their customers.

Among the most authoritative international rating agencies, three should be singled out: largest companies: Moody's Investors Service (Moody's), Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor's (S&P). Each of them assigns its own ratings to banks on a national and international scale: long-term and short-term credit ratings, ratings bank deposits, financial strength ratings of banks, etc.

Each agency has its own rating scale, which has letter designations, usually from "AAA" to "D". In addition, the modifiers "+" and "-" or the numbers 1, 2 and 3 can be added to the letter categories if the bank falls into intermediate values. To show a possible change in the rating in the future, the agency's forecast is used. It can be: "Stable" - this means that the rating is not expected to change in the next couple of years; "Developing" - the rating can both increase and decrease; "Negative" - ​​a downgrade is possible; “Positive” – rating upgrade is possible.

Rating assignment is a paid service. After concluding an agreement with the selected rating agency, the bank must provide the company's analysts with all the necessary information about its activities. After that, a rating meeting is organized with representatives of the management of the credit institution. Based on the assessment of all received data, the rating committee makes a decision on assigning a rating. If the client does not agree, then he can file an appeal, providing additional information. It should be noted that the bank makes the decision to publish the rating at its own discretion.

Taking into account the fact that rating agencies have different approaches to assessing the factors that determine the position of the bank, and have their own specifics, many credit organizations apply to several rating agencies at once. After all, the reputation of the bank in the domestic and international financial markets largely depends on this.