Fitch Ratings

Fitch Ratings
legal form	Inc.
founding	December 24, 1913
Seat	New York City and London
management	Stephen W. Joynt ( CEO )
Number of employees	2300
sales	545 million euros
Branch	Rating agency
Website	www.fitchratings.com

Fitch Ratings is a rating agency with offices in New York and London . The rating agency is present at 51 locations worldwide; it employs 2000 people. In Germany it is represented in Frankfurt am Main as Fitch Deutschland GmbH .

Company history

The company was founded under the company name Fitch Publishing Company on December 24, 1913 by John Knowles Fitch and in 1924 the Fitch Publishing Company began to publish financial statistics. It was the first rating agency to use the AAA to D rating scale . In 1997 the company merged with the London-based IBCA Limited . The company is one of the six agencies recognized in Germany for regulatory risk weighting.

As part of the Fitch Group, Fitch Ratings is a majority-owned subsidiary of 60 percent of the Fimalac holding, which in turn is majority owned by French businessman Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière . As of April 12, 2018, Fitch has been 100% owned by Hearst Communications Inc.

Valuation activity

Fitch Ratings rates companies and banks according to their published figures and rates management as well as government bonds . Fitch Ratings has a market share of 15 percent. It is the smallest agency after Standard & Poor’s , which dominates the world market with Moody’s .

The valuation is paid for by the client; it is 3 to 4 basis points per bond. When evaluating government bonds, an invoice cannot normally be drawn up.

Rating agencies only give one grade. If the rating is poor, for example, the rated countries have to pay higher interest rates for their bonds. The impact of the awarding of marks on financial institutions and the public is great and has far-reaching consequences for the economic activity of companies, banks and states.

Rating codes

Below are the rating codes used by Fitch and its major competitors: Different scales are used for ratings. The following table gives an overview of the scales of the leading agencies using recognized comparison tables:

Moody's		S&P		Fitch		DBRS		English name	German description
Long term	Short term	Long term	Short term	Long term	Short term	Long term	Short term	English name	German description
Aaa	P-1	AAA	A-1 +	AAA	F1 +	AAA	R-1 (high)	Prime (Triple A)	Debtors with the highest creditworthiness, risk of default also in the long term virtually negligible
Aa1		AA +		AA +		AAhigh	R-1 (middle)	High grade	Safe investment, failure risk as good as negligible, but somewhat more difficult to assess in the long term
Aa2		AA		AA		AA
Aa3		AA-		AA-		AAlow
A1		A +	A-1	A +	F1	Ahigh	R-1 (low)	Upper medium grade	Safe investment, provided no unforeseen events affect the overall economy or the industry
A2		A.	A-1	A.	F1	A.	R-1 (low)
A3	P-2	A-	A-2	A-	F2	Alow	R-2 (high)
Baa1	P-2	BBB +	A-2	BBB +	F2	BBBhigh	R-2 (middle)	Lower medium grade	Average investment. Problems are to be expected if the economy as a whole deteriorates
Baa2	P-3	BBB	A-3	BBB	F3	BBB	R-2 (low)
Baa3	P-3	BBB-	A-3	BBB-	F3	BBBlow	R-3
Ba1	Not Prime	BB +	B.	BB +	B.	BBhigh	R-4	Non-investment grade speculative	Speculative investment. If the situation worsens, failures are to be expected
Ba2		BB		BB		BB
Ba3		BB-		BB-		BBlow
B1		B +		B +		Bhigh	R-5	Highly speculative	Highly speculative investment. If the situation worsens, failures are likely
B2		B.		B.		B.
B3		B-		B-		Blow
Caa1		CCC +	C.	CCC	C.	CCC	D.	Substantial risks	No failures are to be expected only if the development is favorable
Caa2		CCC		CC		CC		Extremely speculative
Caa3		CCC-		CC		CC		In default with little prospect for recovery	Moody's: in arrears Standard & Poor's: high probability of default or insolvency proceedings applied for, but not in arrears yet
Approx		CC		C.		C.
Approx		C.		C.		C.
C.		SD	/	RD	/	D.	/	Selective / Restricted default	Partial, limited or total payment default
C.		D.	/	D.	/	D.	/	In default	Partial, limited or total payment default

Web links

Fitch Ratings website

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c Knowledge: Who do the rating agencies belong to? January 17, 2012, accessed April 23, 2012 .
↑ fitchratings.com : About Us , in English, accessed March 3, 2012
↑ List of the rating agencies recognized for regulatory risk weighting including mapping by BaFin from August 14, 2010. Archived from the original on November 7, 2011 ; Retrieved August 17, 2011 .
^ Rudolf Hickel: Zerschlagt die Banken , pp. 97-105, Econ Verlag, Berlin 2012. ISBN 978-3-430-20141-4
↑ See e.g. Swiss Financial Market Authority , concordance tables , accessed on November 12, 2014.
^ Moody's, Rating Symbols & Definitions , accessed November 12, 2014
^ S&P Global Ratings Definitions. In: standardandpoors.com. September 18, 2019, accessed February 28, 2020 (American English).
^ Fitch Ratings, Definitions of Ratings and Other Forms of Opinion , accessed November 12, 2014.

[wienerzeitung-1] Knowledge: Who do the rating agencies belong to? January 17, 2012, accessed April 23, 2012 .

[2] tchratings.com : About Us , in English, accessed March 3, 2012

[3] List of the rating agencies recognized for regulatory risk weighting including mapping by BaFin from August 14, 2010. Archived from the original on November 7, 2011 ; Retrieved August 17, 2011 .

[4] Rudolf Hickel: Zerschlagt die Banken , pp. 97-105, Econ Verlag, Berlin 2012. ISBN 978-3-430-20141-4

[5] See e.g. Swiss Financial Market Authority , concordance tables , accessed on November 12, 2014.

[6] Moody's, Rating Symbols & Definitions , accessed November 12, 2014

[7] S&P Global Ratings Definitions. In: standardandpoors.com. September 18, 2019, accessed February 28, 2020 (American English).

[8] Fitch Ratings, Definitions of Ratings and Other Forms of Opinion , accessed November 12, 2014.