List of eligible credit rating agencies in India for the risk weighting banks’ claims for capital adequacy purposes

The Securities and Exchange Board of India canceled the Certificate of Registration (CoR) granted to Brickwork Ratings India Private Limited as a Credit Rating Agency (CRA), on October 6, 2022. In view of that RBI on October 9, 2022, advised Regulated Entities/ Market Participants that in respect of ratings/credit evaluations required in terms of any guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank, no such fresh ratings/evaluations shall be obtained from the above-mentioned rating agency with immediate effect.

Pursuant to the above, RBI on Monday (January 09, 2023) advised banks regarding the prudential treatment of the existing rating agencies.  As per the new instructions, banks are to use the ratings of the following domestic credit rating agencies for risk weighting their claims for capital adequacy purposes.

Basel III Capital Regulations – Eligible Credit Rating Agencies:

• Acuite Ratings & Research Limited (Acuite)
• Credit Analysis and Research Limited (CARE);
• CRISIL Ratings Limited;
• ICRA Limited;
• India Ratings and Research Private Limited (India Ratings); and
• INFOMERICS Valuation and Rating Pvt Ltd. (INFOMERICS)

“All other provisions regarding external credit ratings stipulated in the Master Circular ibid remain unchanged,” said RBI.

Credit rating agencies employ unique terminologies within their credit rating scales to delineate the risk inherent to corporate entities. These credit rating systems are designed for this purpose.

Please see the following image of different credit rating agencies indicating their credit rating uniquely.

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