Astana, 10 November. The Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market (ARDFM) has approved a list of international credit rating agencies: it includes Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Investors Service, Fitch, A.M.
Best and Morningstar DBRS, the Telegram channel LS reported.
The list is tied to the law “On Credit Rating Activity”. The law for the first time sets the legal basis for rating agencies in Kazakhstan: it defines their status, conditions of operation and requirements for independence, transparency and accountability. The law also provides for the creation of a national rating agency. What consequences inclusion in the list has is not stated in the channel’s report; the text of the order, its date and number are not given.
The main three on the list, as one speaker noted at the presentation of the draft law, hold 90–95% of the global market for rating services, Bizmedia.kz wrote. In Kazakhstan the picture is the same: in 2024, 75 Kazakhstani companies received 101 credit ratings, 42% of them from Fitch, 34% from Standard & Poor’s and 25% from Moody’s, according to these agencies’ data. The list has been widened compared with the draft: at the discussion stage, as Kazinform reported, only three agencies were planned for inclusion.
What it means: The state has fixed whose ratings count as international and added two to the three well-known agencies, A.M. Best and Morningstar DBRS. The practical meaning, for which purposes and whom recognition concerns, is not visible from the report.
Who benefits: Kazakhstani companies and financial institutions that must obtain ratings from recognised agencies: their choice is wider than in the draft.
Background: A credit rating is an assessment of a borrower’s ability to repay debt; the scale and method are developed by the agency. A.M. Best is known above all for rating insurance companies.
