ACRA (Analytical Credit Rating Agency; ) is a

rating agency A credit rating agency (CRA, also called a ratings service) is a company that assigns credit ratings, which rate a debtor's ability to pay back debt by making timely principal and interest payments and the likelihood of default. An agency may ra ...

based in Moscow, Russia. It was established in 2015, with Yekaterina Trofimova as its CEO. Due to the withdrawal of US-based rating agencies because of Russian legislative changes and

sanctions against Russia Sanctions, economic or international, that have been imposed on Russia include: * International sanctions during the Russo-Ukrainian War (2014–) ** Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, US legislation (2017) ** International sanc ...

, ACRA was expected by analysts to become Russia's main ratings issuer. ACRA is deemed too demanding by a number of Russian companies, and is compared unfavorably to its competitor

Expert RA Expert RA is Russia's oldest credit rating agency and also the largest one in terms of both customers and headcount. Expert RA has been assigning credit ratings for 20 years. Expert RA is on the list of authorized rating institutions, meaning that ...

, which is seen as putting its customers first. In January 2017,

VTB Bank VTB Bank (; formerly known as ''Vneshtorgbank'', , lit. 'International Trade Bank') is a Russian majority state-owned bank headquartered in various federal districts of Russia; its legal address is registered as St. Petersburg. As of 2022, ...

refused to disclose the rating it received from ACRA, just noting that it was even lower than the 'politicized' rating assigned by Western agencies. By July 2017 the agency had issued over 40 ratings. ACRA is engaged in research and forecasting and has developed ACRA Financial Stress Index (ACRA FSI), which is used to evaluate the possibility of a financial crisis in Russia and Kazakhstan. The agency was accused of benefiting from state favoritism by

, a local competitor. Partnering with CSCI Pengyuan In 2024, ACRA signed a MoU with a Chinese credit rating agency CSCI Pengyuan to facilitate the entry of issuers to the markets of China and Russia, exchange information on rating methodologies in order to harmonize them, and perform joint analytical research

As a former internal organ of

People's Bank of China The People's Bank of China (officially PBC and unofficially PBOC) is the central bank of the People's Republic of China. It is responsible for carrying out monetary policy as determined by the ''PRC People's Bank Law'' and the ''PRC Commercia ...

, the Chinese central bank, CSCI Pengyuan is generally viewed as being closely tied to the Chinese government.

References

External links

Official website
{{Portal, Companies Credit rating agencies in Russia Companies based in Moscow