Okuzeka
Finance & Banking vocabulary · Risk Management

Credit rating

Meaning in finance & banking, with examples

nounCommon term

In finance & banking, credit rating means: An assessment, usually by a rating agency, of how likely a company, bank or country is to repay its debt, shown with letters such as AAA or BB.

In Turkish: kredi notu, kredi derecelendirme notu

How it is used

Used in treasury, bond markets and the news. The best-known agencies are S&P Global, Moody's and Fitch. Ratings are upgraded, downgraded or affirmed, with a positive, stable or negative outlook. Ratings of BBB- (Baa3 at Moody's) and above are investment grade; lower ones are speculative or high yield.

Example sentences

  1. The agency upgraded the bank's credit rating and changed the outlook to stable.

  2. A higher credit rating would lower our cost of borrowing abroad.

Common collocations

  • credit rating agency
  • sovereign credit rating
  • rating upgrade
  • rating downgrade
  • investment grade
  • credit scoreA number that shows how likely a person is to repay debts, calculated from their credit history, such as past loans, card use and late payments.
  • creditworthinessHow likely a person or company is to repay borrowed money on time, judged from income, existing debt, payment history and financial strength.
  • bondA debt security that a government or company sells to investors to borrow money. It pays regular interest, called a coupon, and returns the full amount at maturity.
  • yieldThe income an investment earns, shown as a percentage of its price or value. For a bond, it is the return an investor gets by buying at the current price.
  • credit riskThe risk that a borrower or another party will not pay back money it owes on time or in full, causing a loss for the lender.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Risk Management

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not financial advice.