EVOLUTION OF CREDIT RATING :

The first Mercantile Credit Agency was established in New York in 1841. Its first rating guide was published in 1859 by Robert Dun. Another similar agency was set up by John Bradstreet which published its rating guide in 1857. These two agencies were merged to form Dun and Bradstreet in 1933 which acquired Moody’s Investor Service in 1962. Moody’s was founded by Moody in 1900. The other world renowned rating agency namely Standard and Poor was created in 1941 by merging the Standard Statistics Company and Poor’s Publishing Company which had their origin earlier.

In India CRISIL (Credit Rating and Information Services (India) Limited) was set up as the first credit rating agency in 1987. This was followed by ICRA Limited (Investment Information and Credit Rating Agency of India Limited) in 1991 and CARE (Credit Analyses and Research Limited) in 1994 and then in 1999 Fitch Rating India Pvt. Ltd. now known as India Ratings and Research Pvt. Ltd., Brickwork Rating Pvt. Ltd. in 2008, SMERA \ (SME Rating Agency of India Limited) in 2011 and Info Merics Valuation and Ratings Pvt. Ltd. All these seven creditrating agencies are registered with the SEBI.