FX.co ★ Russian rating agency to cooperate with leading Chinese research firm

When the leading rating agencies assign low ratings to a country, some begin to work hard on corrections of the mistakes, and some establish their own agency. Why focus on someone else's professional opinion, when you can create your own agency and carry out your own assessment.

That is what Russia had in mind creating the Analytical Credit Rating Agency (ACRA). Since very few people considered the assessments by the ACRA experts seriously for the years of its existence, the Russian agency decided to establish partnership with Golden Credit Rating International based in China. The two agencies have already signed the memorandum on cooperation. However, it is still difficult to say what is the purpose of this partnership and who will use these ratings. The memorandum says only about "the development of technological and informational cooperation between the two countries". In addition, it can take several years from the signing of memorandum to the establishment of a full partnership. However, the Russian officials are full of optimism.

"This will be the world’s largest bilateral rating partnership in terms of coverage, market size, and the size of the agencies involved," ACRA CEO Ekaterina Trofimova said. So, very soon such industry giants as Moody's, Fitch Ratings, and Standard & Poor's can pale into insignificance.