National Credit Ratings (NCR)

The credit NKR rating agency is created on February 11, 2019. NKR — 100 percent subsidiary company of RBC media holding into which also enter the news agency of the same name, TV channel, the newspaper and the magazine.

The NKR command integrates analysts and methodologists with experience both in Russian, and in the international rating agencies and also the largest banks.

NKR regularly publishes analytical researches, actively cooperates with professional associations and mass media. The agency approves methodologies of assignment of ratings to banks and insurers, the non-financial companies of any size from all branches of the economy and to authorities.

The agency is a partner of a number of the Russian professional associations, including National association of concessionaires and long-term investors in infrastructure (NAKDI), the Association of Factoring Companies (AFC) and Leasing union and the All-Russian Union of Insurers (ARUI).

2019

The Bank of Russia included NKR in the register of the accredited rating agencies on September 12, 2019, in seven months after creation of the agency. In December, 2019 the agency started assignment of credit ratings.

Creation of the agency

The RBC media holding announced in January, 2019 the establishment the National Credit Ratings (NCR) agencies. It will be headed by the former head of group of ratings of financial institutions of AKRA Kirill Lukashuk^[1].

NKR will begin the activity after the Central Bank enters data in the corresponding register.

"Creation of rating agency  is a next step in strategy implementation of diversification of business of RBC holding. We see the interest of our audience in qualitative financial information"  — Grigory Berezkin, the chairman of the board of directors of the UST group said (the group possesses RBC media holding).

Five people, including two independent directors with experience in financial markets and in the system of a state administration will be a part of Board of Directors of NKR.

Future head of the agency Kirill Lukashuk told that the development strategy NKR assumes significant increase in volume of the rating market therefore at the first stage a key problem  of NKR — "occupy a significant share of the industry".

At the moment in the world three main international rating agencies  — Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch Ratings. In 2014 after introduction of the anti-Russian sanctions  they began to downgrade the ratings and forecasts both for the Russian companies and banks, and for Russia in general. Russian authorities decided to create own rating agency which  would become an alternative "to the big three ​". In 2015 the AKRA agency was founded, its shareholders are 27 large companies, including  Alfa-Bank, Sberbank and Severstal.

At the same time in Russia large-scale reform of all rating industry was undertaken: The Central Bank decided to take the credit ratings based on a national scale as a basis. The priority was received by the agencies working as independent legal entities, besides, for assignment of ratings on a national scale they had to obtain accreditation of the Bank of Russia. S&P, Moody’s and Fitch refused to do it, and some time the only national rating agency was AKRA. Later the RAEX agency founded in 1997 was entered in the register of the Central Bank. More this register was not replenished.

In Russia the RusRating and National Rating Agency (NRA) agencies which have no accreditation of the Central Bank also work.

Notes