Bangkok--20 May--Fitch Ratings
Fitch Ratings (Thailand) has announced the revision of its rating scale for Thailand’s Asset Manager Ratings, following the update of Fitch’s global asset manager ratings criteria and scale in April 2013.
The key changes include:
- A new five-point descriptive scale replacing the 12 point numerical scale
- Updated rating definitions that explicitly benchmark managers against the standards of institutional investors
- More explicit scoring attributes for each of the 30 rating factors for greater transparency
- The introduction of rating Outlooks that indicate the direction a rating is likely to move over one to two years
Fitch’s Asset Manager Ratings provide investors and other market participants with an independent assessment of an asset manager‘s investment and operational platform relative to institutional investors’ standards. The rating methodology, which was first developed in 1998, focuses on five key areas, and 30 sub-categories. The five key areas reviewed are: 1) company, 2) controls, 3) investments, 4) operations, and 5) technology.
For further information, please see the 22 April 2013 criteria report, entitled ‘Asset Manager Rating Criteria’, which are available at www.fitchratings.com.
Asset managers in Thailand are rated ‘Highest Standards (tha)’, ‘High Standards (tha)’ and ‘Good Standards (tha)’, relative to the standards applied by institutional investors in the domestic market. Managers that fail to maintain minimum institutional standards may have their ratings at ‘Below Standards (tha)’ or ‘Inadequate Standards (tha)’.