credit rating agency
(CRA)
Noun
An independent company that evaluates and quantifies the credit risk of banks, nonbank corporations and local and national entities as well as their publicly traded debt by benchmarking across industries and countries and rating the probability of default of the entities and issues.
Synonym(s):
- rating agency; ratings service.
Comment:
Standard & Poor’s (S&P’s), Moody’s Investor Service and Fitch Ratings are the three major global CRAs.
