A credit rating is an opinion about the likelihood that a borrower or a specific debt instrument will be repaid, expressed on a lettered or numbered scale. It is an opinion, not a measurement, and not a recommendation to transact. Rating providers are regulated or registered in several jurisdictions, with rules about conflicts, disclosure and methodology transparency, but the scales themselves and the analysis behind them belong to each provider, which defines what its own grades mean. There is no common benchmark against which grades are calibrated: two providers’ apparently similar symbols can rest on different default definitions, different time horizons and different treatment of recovery or parent support. Do not translate one into another, and where a covenant references a rating, name the provider and the scale.
Why this entry carries no source list. This lexicon cites an official primary source wherever one exists and says plainly where none does. No body defines this term: it is commercial vocabulary, and what it means in any particular deal is whatever the document says. Citing a bank’s product page, an insurer’s brochure or a consultancy’s explainer would dress one firm’s usage as a general rule. The paragraph above therefore ends by naming what to read instead of the word.