Credit Rating Agency (“CRA”)

CRAs provide credit ratings by assessing the creditworthiness of entities and the financial instruments (such as debt, loans or preferred stock) issued by them. In the US and Europe, CRAs are regulated by the SEC and EMSA respectively – a list of registered CRAs can be found on the websites of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and European Securities and Markets Authority (“EMSA”). There are many CRAs such as Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s, Fitch, AMBest and DBRS.