Ratings & Scores - ICAP CRIF
 

Ratings & Scores

ICAP CRIF S.A. is the only company in Greece registered as:

  • Credit Rating Agency (CRA), by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and
  • External Credit Assessment Institution (ECAI) by the Bank of Greece.
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ICAP CRIF Credit Ratings

Pursuant to its institutional role as a Credit Rating Agency, ICAP CRIF S.A. assigns Credit Ratings issued through an established and well-defined rating system, with rating categories that may be used for  regulatory purposes, i.e. for specific purposes of compliance with EU law, or EU law as implemented by the national law of EU Member-States.

 

The credit ratings assigned by ICAP CRIF S.A. are accepted by the European Central Bank and the Bank of Greece, in the context of implementation of the Eurosystem, and are additionally used for the purpose of calculating the capital requirements of Greek credit institutions.

 

They comply with the requirements of Regulation (EC) 1060/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 September 2009 on Credit Rating Agencies, as amended and in force.

 

Under this Regulation, ICAP CRIF S.A. applies strictly prescribed procedures, methodologies and policies that ensure its compliance with the regulatory framework and the assignment of credit ratings governed by the principles of integrity, reliability, transparency, and independence.

ICAP CRIF S.A. provides the following types of Credit Ratings:

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1. Corporate Credit Ratings. These concern:

 

Non-Financial sector Corporates

The purpose of Corporate Credit Rating is to assess the creditworthiness of reviewed enterprises in relation to their probability of default and/or bankruptcy over a period of one year. This results from the review of data based on a pre-defined statistical system and additional detailed material information by a Ratings Analyst.

 

It is captured on a ten-point scale (AAA, AA, A, BBB, BB, B, CCC, CC, C & D). The closer the company’s classification is to higher credit ratings (AAA-BBB), the lower the probability of default and/or bankruptcy.

 

Using nine different credit models, ICAP CRIF incorporates the guidelines of the Basel Committee and of the EU (assessment of economic cycle elements, weighted assessment of the probability of default based on historical data, etc.) to assess the characteristics of companies, classify them in Credit Rating Zones and predict their probability of default (PD).

 

The business perimeter to which ICAP CRIF assigns Credit Ratings also includes Companies operating in Special Activities, Holding Companies and Real Estate Investment Companies (REIC).

 

Corporate Debt Instruments

ICAP CRIF’s Credit Rating of Corporate Debt Instruments (bonds, notes and loans) expresses the instruments’ probability of default, i.e. the probability that either the Issuer will not be able to meet its credit obligations, or the instrument-specific default clauses are enforced.

 

The methodology applied combines the ICAP CRIF corporate ratings with a notching approach which reflects the recovery expectations in the event of default.  Special attention is paid to structural credit enhancements such as guarantees, cash reserves, collaterals and specially arranged security provisions in transactions that affect recovery expectations.

 

The corporate debt instrument rating scale follows the corporate credit rating scale, but with intermediate categories (notching).

 

2. Credit Ratings in Structured Finance Instruments

ICAP CRIF rates Notes of Asset Backed Securities, including Securitizations of Performing or non-Performing Credit Exposures and Securitizations of Trade Credit Receivables, granted either to legal entities or natural persons. The service is specialized depending on the type of receivables, covering the whole range of credit (Secured or Unsecured, Consumer Loans, Mortgage Loans, Corporate Loans, Leasing, etc.).

The Credit Rating reflects the level of confidence that the instrument will fulfill its contractual obligations, fully and on time.

To determine this level of confidence, ICAP CRIF has developed a methodological approach that combines both quantitative and qualitative factors, which capture the risk characteristics of the underlying asset portfolio, the transaction structure, the legal risks, the counterparty risks, as well as the performance of the Servicer and all parties involved.

ICAP CRIF’s methodology for estimating expected losses (EL) is based on an innovative generalization of the Vasicek credit loss distribution, in order to determine in detail, the probability of extreme loss events, estimating recovery rates and taking into account macroeconomic factors.
The rating scale of Structured Finance Instruments Ratings is nine-grade with intermediate categories (notching).

 

 

Categories of Credit Ratings

 

ICAP CRIF Credit Ratings are divided into two main categories.

 

  1. Unsolicited Credit Ratings are ratings issued at the request of a client other than the rated Corporate /Issuer of Corporate Debt Instrument/ Issuer of Structured Finance Instrument.
  2. Solicited Credit Ratings are ratings issued at the request of the rated Corporate /Issuer of Corporate Debt Instrument/ Issuer of Structured Finance Instrument.

Regulatory Framework

Pursuant to the operating framework for Credit Rating Agencies as set out in Regulation 1060/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 September 2009, ICAP CRIF publishes recent years’ Transparency Reports, the Code of Conduct, as well as other policies applied and information material for compliance with the above Regulation.

 

Transparency Reports

 

Macroeconomics Impact on Default Rates

Code of Conduct

Conflicts of Interest Policy

Disclosures Policy

List of Rated Entities contributing more than 5% in ICAP CRIF’s Revenues

Ancillary Services

 

In compliance with the requirements of Point 6, Section D, Annex I of the amended Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 of the European Parliament and the Council on Credit Rating Agencies and ESMA’s Guidelines on Disclosure Requirements for Initial Reviews and Preliminary Ratings (ESMA80-416-203), please see here information about the entities and debt instruments that have been submitted to ICAP CRIF for their initial review or for preliminary rating.

The information is related to Initial Reviews and Preliminary Ratings which were carried out from 1 July 2022 onwards.

Credit Rating Assignment Methodologies

Pursuant to the operating framework for Credit Rating Agencies as set out in Regulation 1060/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 September 2009, ICAP CRIF publishes the Credit Rating Assignment Methodologies followed and the ICAP CRIF Credit Rating Scales.

Credit Rating Assignment Methodologies

ICAP CRIF Scores

The purpose of ICAP CRIF Score is to assess the creditworthiness of reviewed enterprises in relation to their probability of default and/or bankruptcy over a period of one year. This assessment is based on the analysis of commercial and financial data as well as trading behaviour data resulting from published information and ICAP CRIF primary research.

 

Corporate credit scores are captured on a ten-point scale (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2, D1, D2, E1 and E2) with the following logic: The closer the company’s classification is to higher credit score (Β2→ Α1), the lower the probability of default and/or bankruptcy. Conversely, the closer the company’s classification is to lower credit scores (D2→ E2), the higher the probability of default and/or bankruptcy.


ICAP CRIF Scores

Industry Rating

ICAP CRIF has developed Industry Rating to meet the need of market participants to distinguish between industries with growth prospects and those which will be caught in a credit spiral, i.e. those involving companies with a high number of defaults.

It is a predictive indicator which captures the risks and prospects of each industry focusing on future estimates and not exclusively on past data.

 

 

The Industry Rating has two components:

  • The Risk Score, i.e. an industry’s credit risk score over a one-year period, which reflects the trend of the industry towards high or low default rate, across all active companies operating in the industry.
  • The Relative Strength Index, which compares industries as to their expected economic performance in the coming year.

 

Industry Rating is a 2-digit alphanumeric code, reflecting these two components:

Risk.Profiler – Risk Solution for Banks

Risk.Profiler is a next generation risk assessment platform that ranks Bank clients according to their Credit Risk Profile (Scoring & Ratings), increases user effectiveness and efficiency by supporting day-to-day operations, monitors client performance, and generates automated reports for the monitoring of the credit portfolio.

 

Main Features:

  • Interface with an internal database;
  • Entry of quantitative & qualitative customer evaluation data;
  • Credit model implementation and ranking of clients by Credit Rating – Scores;
  • Activation of credit model implementation with predefined trigger events or by user selection;
  • Maintenance of a database with historical data (data will be used for modeling in the future);
  • Reporting;
  • Link to external workflow execution applications e.g. LOS, Collections.

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It has specific functionalities that meet specific needs of Banks:

Early Warning Signals Module with the following main features:

  • Compile alerts from internal sources and from the ICAP CRIF database;
  • Evaluate alerts in terms of importance;
  • Classify debtors into Risk Categories;
  • Create a list of actions, for each Risk Category;
  • Central Control – Display of alerts;
  • Export lists & enable emails;
  • Update the Reviews workflow;
  • Link to external workflow applications.

 

IFRS9 Module with the following main features:

  • Models and automated process, in accordance with the accounting standard’s requirements;
  • Use of the one-yr PD from the Ratings Module for ensuring consistency in the Credit process and IFRS;
  • Loan/Exposure assessment across the Retail & Corporate Banking spectrum;
  • Auto-feed data through the interface with the Bank’s database;
  • One-year, Lifetime PD calculation models at Exposure level;
  • Ranking by stages and rules-based ranking changes;
  • Macroeconomic scenario functionality;
  • Exposure at Default (EAD), Loss Given Default (LGD), Expected Loss (EL) calculations;
  • Report generation with final forecasts, to feed into the accounting process.

 

NPE Management Module where:

  • Appropriate algorithms and quantitative and qualitative criteria are used to measure a company’s viability;
  • The Borrower’s Debt Service Capacity is calculated, whether a business, a natural person or a freelancer, and the Feasible Amount for servicing the loan is determined;
  • Portfolio analysis is carried out both at the level of individual loans and at the level of all the loans of a specific borrower.
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