Credit Rating Agencies and Credit Ratings

What will you learn?

Like them or not, credit rating agencies play an essential role in debt markets. Who are they? Who uses credit ratings? What is the rating process? Do ratings work? These are some of the questions we will address.

A word of caution before diving in. My SwissThink colleagues and I spent approximately a combined 150 years at S&P, the world’s largest credit rating agency, and we continue to have strong business relationships with the “rating” world. This proximity gives us a unique vantage point, but we should also admit that it does not make us entirely objective.

After taking this module, you will understand the role credit rating agencies in the global debt markets, the rating scales and the importance of the rating methodologies in the rating process. You will be able to critically assess the robustness of credit ratings with the analysis of rating performance studies published by the rating agencies.