Tri-nation firm to help build better world rating system

The new credit rating agency launched by China, Russia and the United States would help build a better global rating system and offer more impartial rating information to clients, the firm's Russian partner said.

The new "troika" vowed to break up the monopoly of the "big three" and establish an independent international credit rating supervision system, Dmitry Yefimov, director-general of RusRating JSC told Xinhua in an interview.

The three credit rating firms, China-based Dagong Global Credit Rating Co. Ltd, U.S.-based Egan-Jones Ratings Co, and Russia-based RusRating JSC, established the Universal Credit Rating Group Wednesday in Beijing.

The foundation of the joint rating venture would benefit all partners involved and facilitate the reform of the global credit rating mechanism, Yefimov said.

For RusRating, by cooperating with Chinese and U.S. partners, it would promote its international status and expand its market presence, he said.

For example, the newly established rating agency would serve as a "common platform" through which Chinese investors and Southeast Asian bankers could obtain independent assessments of Russian market players.

"We want to have strong partners to speed up our expansion," Yefimov added.

For Chinese agency Dagong, though interested in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, it has not received accreditation there.

By joining the new troika, Dagong found a reliable partner and expected bright business future in Russia, Yefimov said.

Meanwhile, Chinese and Russian rating agencies could learn from their U.S. partner Egan-Jones and improve their global credibility, Yefimov said.

In addition, the Universal Credit Rating Group would help form international rating standards and offer "global vision" from varies national insights rather than the monopolized rating information offered by the "big three," namely Stand & Poor's (S&P), Moody and Fitch Group, according to Yefimov.

The major three rating agencies, mainly located in North America, "are under the influence of certain financial circles and international capital, objectively," Yefimov said, adding a multi-polar rating system was needed in the long run.

Though the new troika could not match the big three currently, "the strategy is to become at least comparable with them to a certain degree in terms of the volume of rated objects and the investors' perception of us," Yefimov said.

The start-up financing of the Hongkong-based new rating agency will be provided mostly by China, he said.

When a common information platform was created, the single ranking methodology should be adopted. RusRating has modified its rating scale so it became closer to that of the Dagong, Yefimov said.

"The ratings must be public, transparent; the generally recognized information platform must be established. The creation of the multilingual informational portal attractive for global investors requires certain efforts, time and financing," Yefimov said.