credit rating agencies
Bond score evaluators
Credit rating agencies are companies that assess the creditworthiness of borrowers—governments, corporations, or financial instruments—and assign letter grades indicating the likelihood of default.
The major agencies (Moody's, Standard & Poor's, Fitch) wield enormous influence over borrowing costs; a downgrade can raise interest rates and trigger sell-offs.
The credit rating agencies gave subprime mortgage securities their highest ratings before the 2008 crash.
- investment gradeCreditworthy debt classification
- corporationsLegally incorporated business entities
- regulatorsEntities enforcing compliance
- ethical codesRules defining right conduct
- too big to failRequiring rescue due to scale
risk assessment · stress testing · conflict of interest · legal oversight · sovereign debt · insurance companies · Big Three · Wall Street · pension funds · governments · financial analysts · financial crisis
credit rating agenciesborrowers
Those receiving loans
lenders · creditors · bondholders · banks · investment banks
credit rating agenciescorporate bonds
Debt issued by businesses
credit rating agencieswhistleblowers
Those exposing organizational misconduct
credit, credits, credited, crediting, creditor, creditors, creditable, credibility, credible