Switzerland
Date of last update: October 2020
Legal Background
The regulatory use of ratings in Switzerland is mainly defined by Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA. Unlike in the EU, there is no formal registration process for rating agencies in Switzerland. Rating agencies are given the possibility to apply for recognition as an External Credit Assessment Institute (ECAI) only. According to international regulatory practice, FINMA determines the specific rating segments of recognized ECAI’s that can be used for regulatory capital requirements in consideration with domestic needs.
The FINMA Circular 2012/1 on Credit Rating Agencies entered into force on January 1st 2012 and can be found here: http://www.finma.ch/e/regulierung/Documents/finma-rs-2012-01-e.pdf
Recognized Rating Agencies
Currently, the following Rating Agencies are recognized by FINMA in Switzerland:
A.M.Best Rating Services
DBRS
fedafin AG
Fitch Ratings
Moodys Investors Services
Scope Ratings
Standard & Poors
The recognition is granted separately for the 3 broad market segments “public finance”, “commercial entities” and “structured Finance”, which can be looked up following this link
Mapping
Long term Ratings from the above agencies are mapped by FINMA onto the 7 credit quality steps applicable to banks in Switzerland as follows:
