1, Moody's Company was founded by John Moody. He published the viewpoint of bond credit rating in the book Railway Investment Analysis published by 1909, which made the credit rating enter the securities market for the first time. He pioneered the practice of distinguishing 90 kinds of bonds issued by 250 companies with simple credit rating symbols. It is this practice that distinguishes credit rating agencies from general statistical agencies. 19 13 years, Moody's extended its credit rating to public utilities and industrial bonds, and created a third-party independent credit rating or unauthorized credit rating method by using public information. In the past, Moody's rating and research mainly focused on corporate and government debt, institutional financing securities and commercial paper. In recent years, Moody's began to rate securities issuers, insurance company debts, bank loans, derivatives, bank deposits and other bank debts, and manage funds. At present, Moody's has 800 analysts worldwide, more than 65,438+0,700 assistant analysts, and agencies in 65,438+07 countries. In 2003, the total amount of rated and analyzed bonds exceeded $30 trillion, and its shares were listed and traded on new york Stock Exchange (code MCO).
2.S&P； P) Poole Publishing Company and Standard Statistics Company merged 194 1. The history of Poole Publishing Company can be traced back to 1860. Its founder, Henry V. Poor, published Railway History and American Canal, and took the lead in financial information service and bond rating. 1966 S&P was acquired by McGraw Hill. The company mainly provides independent analysis reports on stocks, bonds, mutual funds and other investment tools, and gives credit ratings to more than 220,000 securities and funds around the world. At present, it has 65,438+0,200 analysts, 40 institutions around the world and more than 5,000 employees.
3. Fitch was founded by John K. Fitch in 19 13. At first, it was a publishing company. 1924, Fitch began to use AAA to D rating system to rate Industrial Securities. In recent years, Fitch has carried out many reorganizations and mergers and acquisitions, and its scale has been expanding. 1997, the company acquired another rating agency, IBCA, and in 2000, it acquired Duff &; Phelps, and then bought a Thomson Bank watch. At present, 97% of the company's shares are controlled by France's FIMALAC company. It has 45 branches around the world, with more than 65,438+0,400 employees and more than 900 rating analysts. Its business mainly includes financing rating of countries, local governments, financial institutions, enterprises and institutions. Up to now, it has been rated as 1600 financial institutions and 600 institutions.
Since 1975, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recognized these three companies as "nationally recognized statistical rating agencies" or "NRSRO", they have monopolized the international rating industry. According to the report of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), among all banks and companies participating in credit rating in the world, Moody's covers 80% of banks and 78% of companies, Standard & Poor's covers 37% of banks and 66% of companies, and Fitch covers 27% of banks and 8% of companies. Moody's annual operating income is about $654.38+05 billion, Standard & Poor's is more than $654.38+00 billion, and Fitch International is about $500 million.
Credit is an inevitable product of social and economic development and an indispensable part of modern economic and social operation. Maintaining and developing credit relationship is an important prerequisite for protecting social and economic order. Credit rating is a management activity, which is expressed by professional institutions or departments with special symbols or simple words according to certain methods and procedures on the basis of comprehensive understanding, investigation and analysis of enterprises. Now, with the establishment of China's market economy system, in order to prevent credit risks and maintain normal economic order, the importance of credit rating is becoming increasingly obvious, mainly in the following aspects:
1. Credit rating helps enterprises to guard against commercial risks and provides good conditions for the construction of modern enterprise system. The ultimate goal of transforming enterprise management mechanism and establishing modern enterprise system is to make enterprises become the main body of market competition with independent operation, self-financing, self-development and self-restraint according to law. When an enterprise becomes an independent interest subject, it will also bear the business risks independently, and credit rating will help the enterprise achieve the maximum effective economic benefits. This is because any enterprise must contact with the outside world and strive to develop its own customers. These customers are the carrier to realize the interests of enterprises and the biggest risk of enterprises. With the increasingly fierce market competition, it has become one of the effective means for enterprises to determine credit policies for customers to the maximum extent. These credit policies, including the determination of credit form and term amount, must be based on the scientific evaluation and analysis of customers' credit status, in order to obtain the maximum benefit from customers' transactions and control customers' credit risk to a minimum. Due to the lack of attention to the other party's credit status, blind pursuit of customer orders, the lessons of bad debt losses are not profound for the majority of enterprises. On the other hand, because credit rating is a comprehensive inspection and assessment of the internal quality of enterprises, enterprises with high credit rating can obtain more credit policies in economic exchanges and reduce financing costs, which is not only conducive to finding the weak links in enterprise management in time, but also provides pressure and motivation for enterprises to improve management.
2, credit rating is conducive to the fairness, justice and integrity of the capital market:
(1) Compared with ordinary investors, with the development of financial markets, more and more securities are issued, and investors urgently need to know the information of issuers, so as to optimize investment choices, realize investment security and obtain reliable returns. Credit rating can provide investors with fair and objective information, thus protecting the interests of investors.
(2) It can be used as the basis for the review and decision-making of the capital market management department to maintain the order and stability of the capital market. Because credit rating is a prerequisite for the competent government department to approve the issuance of bonds, the issuer can be limited to enterprises with strong solvency and high credit degree.
(3) Credit rating is also beneficial for enterprises to raise funds at low cost. Enterprises urgently require reasonable analysis and proper evaluation of their own operating conditions, so as to help banks and public investors give financial support according to their own operating management and credit status, and improve their credit rating through continuous improvement of operating management, so as to minimize the cost of raising loans and enjoy corresponding rights and interests.
3. Credit rating is the basis for commercial banks to determine the degree of loan risk, and it is also the basis for credit asset risk management. As the main unit of economic activities, enterprises have a close credit relationship with banks, and bank credit is one of the important sources of funds for their production and development. The quality of their production and operation activities and the standardization of their behavior are directly related to the use and efficiency of bank credit funds. This requires that the bank's business activities should be oriented to enterprises. Business performance. Profitability, solvency and other scientific evaluation, in order to determine the uncertainty of the loss of credit assets, to prevent loan risks to the maximum extent.