Standard & Poor's launches Greater China credit rating scale

Rating agency Standard & Poor's today said it had launched the first credit benchmark developed especially for capital markets in Greater China to meet the requirement of investors operating in the region.

The Greater China benchmark will provide an independent and transparent opinion about the credit risk of borrowers active in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, including the fast-growing offshore renminbi debt market.

"The Greater China capital markets have grown rapidly over the past year, and there is an increasingly wider use of the renminbi currency for offshore bond issuance," said Ping Chew, managing director and head of Greater China, Standard & Poor's.

"Our Greater China credit rating scale applies to offshore renminbi-denominated fixed income transactions and also supports the efforts of fixed income asset managers to create investment pools specifically designed for the Greater China asset class," he added.

The Greater China scale credit ratings have been assigned to over 190 debt issuers and issues in the region.

"The launch of Standard & Poor's Greater China credit rating scale furthers our commitment to the development of credit markets in fast-growing economies around the world," said Yu-Tsung Chang, executive managing director, Asia-Pacific Ratings, Standard & Poor's. "In Asia-Pacific, regional markets are becoming more integrated, and Standard & Poor's Greater China credit rating scale complements our ASEAN rating scale already in place to serve the South East Asian region."

"These transparent benchmarks provide investors with finer distinctions of credit risk and a rating distribution aligned to users' expectations of relative creditworthiness within a regional context," Chang added.