A credit rating evaluates the credit worthiness of an issuer of specific types of debt, specifically, debt issued by a business enterprise such as a corporation or a government. It is an evaluation made by a credit rating agency of the debt issuers likelihood of default.[3]
Credit ratings are determined by credit ratings agencies. The credit rating represents the credit rating agency's evaluation of qualitative and quantitative information for a company or government; including non-public information obtained by the credit rating agencies analysts.
Credit ratings are not based on mathematical formulas. Instead, credit rating agencies use their judgment and experience in determining what public and private information should be considered in giving a rating to a particular company or government. The credit rating is used by individuals and entities that purchase the bonds issued by companies and governments to determine the likelihood that the government will pay its bond obligations.
A poor credit rating indicates a credit rating agency's opinion that the company or government has a high risk of defaulting, based on the agency's analysis of the entity's history and analysis of long term economic prospects.
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A sovereign credit rating is the credit rating of a sovereign entity, i.e., a national government. The sovereign credit rating indicates the risk level of the investing environment of a country and is used by investors looking to invest abroad. It takes political risk into account.[4]
The table shows the ten least-risky countries for investment as of June 2011. Ratings are further broken down into components including political risk, economic risk. Euromoney's bi-annual country risk index[5] monitors the political and economic stability of 185 sovereign countries. Results focus foremost on economics, specifically sovereign default risk and/or payment default risk for exporters (a.k.a. "trade credit" risk).
A. M. Best defines "country risk"[6] as the risk that country-specific factors could adversely affect an insurer's ability to meet its financial obligations.
A short-term rating is a probability factor of an individual going into default within a year. This is in contrast to long-term rating which is evaluated over a long timeframe. In the past institutional investors preferred to consider long-term ratings. Nowadays, short-term ratings are commonly used.
| Rank | Previous | Country | Overall score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Norway | 92.44 |
| 2 | 6 | Luxembourg | 90.86 |
| 3 | 2 | Switzerland | 90.20 |
| 4 | 4 | Denmark | 89.07 |
| 5 | 3 | Sweden | 88.72 |
| 6 | 12 | Singapore | 87.65 |
| 7 | 5 | Finland | 87.31 |
| 8 | 7 | Canada | 87.24 |
| 9 | 6 | Netherlands | 86.97 |
| 10 | 13 | Germany | 85.73 |
First, the Basel II agreement requires banks to report their one-year probability if they applied internal-ratings-based approach for capital requirements. Second, many institutional investors can easily manage their credit/bond portfolios with derivatives on monthly or quarterly basis. Therefore, some rating agencies simply report short-term ratings.
The credit rating of a corporation is a financial indicator to potential investors of debt securities such as bonds. Credit rating is usually of a financial instrument such as a bond, rather than the whole corporation. These are assigned by credit rating agencies such as A. M. Best, Dun & Bradstreet, Standard & Poor's, Moody's or Fitch Ratings and have letter designations such as A, B, C. The Standard & Poor's rating scale is as follows, from excellent to poor: AAA, AA+, AA, AA-, A+, A, A-, BBB+, BBB, BBB-, BB+, BB, BB-, B+, B, B-, CCC+, CCC, CCC-, CC, C, D. Anything lower than a BBB- rating is considered a speculative or junk bond.[9] The Moody's rating system is similar in concept but the naming is a little different. It is as follows, from excellent to poor: Aaa, Aa1, Aa2, Aa3, A1, A2, A3, Baa1, Baa2, Baa3, Ba1, Ba2, Ba3, B1, B2, B3, Caa1, Caa2, Caa3, Ca, C.
A. M. Best rates from excellent to poor in the following manner: A++, A+, A, A-, B++, B+, B, B-, C++, C+, C, C-, D, E, F, and S. The CTRISKS rating system is as follows: CT3A, CT2A, CT1A, CT3B, CT2B, CT1B, CT3C, CT2C and CT1C. All these CTRISKS grades are mapped to one-year probability of default.
| Moody's | S&P | Fitch | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long-term | Short-term | Long-term | Short-term | Long-term | Short-term | |
| Aaa | P-1 | AAA | A-1+ | AAA | F1+ | Prime |
| Aa1 | AA+ | AA+ | High grade | |||
| Aa2 | AA | AA | ||||
| Aa3 | AA- | AA- | ||||
| A1 | A+ | A-1 | A+ | F1 | Upper medium grade | |
| A2 | A | A | ||||
| A3 | P-2 | A- | A-2 | A- | F2 | |
| Baa1 | BBB+ | BBB+ | Lower medium grade | |||
| Baa2 | P-3 | BBB | A-3 | BBB | F3 | |
| Baa3 | BBB- | BBB- | ||||
| Ba1 | Not prime | BB+ | B | BB+ | B | Non-investment grade speculative |
| Ba2 | BB | BB | ||||
| Ba3 | BB- | BB- | ||||
| B1 | B+ | B+ | Highly speculative | |||
| B2 | B | B | ||||
| B3 | B- | B- | ||||
| Caa1 | CCC+ | C | CCC | C | Substantial risks | |
| Caa2 | CCC | Extremely speculative | ||||
| Caa3 | CCC- | In default with little prospect for recovery |
||||
| Ca | CC | |||||
| C | ||||||
| C | D | / | DDD | / | In default | |
| / | DD | |||||
| / | D | |||||
The largest credit rating agencies (which tend to operate worldwide) are Dun & Bradstreet, Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings.
Individuals:
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