RegulationMay 30 2013

New credit ratings agency approved

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The registration takes effect from 3 June under European credit ratings agency regulation, and allows the EIU’s credit ratings to be used for regulatory purposes throughout the EU.

There are currently 33 registered and two certified CRAs in the EU, including 16 various geographical entities of the big three of Fitch, Moody’s and S&P based around Europe.

All CRAs operating within the EU were registered under or certified in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 of the European Parliament of 16 September 2009.

ESMAs supervisory mandate applies to all credit rating agencies established in the EU, which issue credit ratings disclosed publicly or distributed by subscription.

The EIU is a sister company of publishers The Economist Group.

The Big Three

• Fitch was founded in 1913 and was designated as one of three nationally recognised statistical rating organisations in the US in 1975. It is controlled by French-based corporation FIMALAC

• S&P traces its history to 1860, and adopted its modern guise in 1941 when Poor’s Publishing and Standard Statistics merged to become Standard & Poor’s Corp

• Moody’s was founded in 1909 to produce manuals of statistics related to stocks and bonds and bond ratings. It separated from parent company Dun & Bradstreet in 2000