Russian credit rating agency: As Western rating agencies continue to downgrade the creditworthiness of Russia and her leading companies, a group of Russia’s banks are considering clubbing together to establish an agency of their own.
Authorities within the Kremlin and the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) appear to be increasingly convinced that the negative and worsening credit ratings being handed out to the country’s economy and businesses are politically motivated and closely linked to the situation in Ukraine, and have even threatened to withdraw from the ratings system altogether.
This new move is a marginally less radical response. ” Banks will be invited to become shareholders of the [new]rating agency,” an unnamed source within senior banking circles told Interfax this week. “Since by law a bank can own no more than 20% of a rating agency we will be working to make sure that we have at least five founder members.
Another source said that ownership could be limited to state-owned banks, excluding the CBR.
Banks consider setting up Russian credit rating agency
Source: Interfax