Understanding Ratings

Rating Services

KBRA Credit Rating

  • Published KBRA Credit Rating: A credit rating of an entity, issuer or issuer obligation that is published and surveilled. It may include a preliminary rating phase in which the preliminary rating is based upon preliminary information and conditioned upon one or more assumptions. KBRA expresses its credit ratings using the long-term, short-term or the IFSR rating scales. 1

  • Unpublished KBRA Credit Rating: A credit rating of an entity, issuer or issuer obligation that is unpublished, confidential and surveilled. It may include a preliminary rating phase in which the preliminary rating is based upon preliminary information and conditioned upon one or more assumptions. KBRA expresses its credit ratings using the long-term, short-term or the IFSR rating scales. 1

Other Permissible Services

  • KBRA Credit Assessment: A KBRA Credit Assessment (“KCA”) is an evaluation of the creditworthiness of an unrated issuer or issuer obligation that is unpublished and confidential. KCAs are produced with limited information and are typically requested by a third-party. KCAs are typically point-in-time assessments but may be updated at the request of the third-party or at KBRA’s discretion and are indicated using lower case letters. KCAs are not credit ratings.

  • KBRA Fund Rating: A KBRA Fund Rating (“KFR”) is a forward-looking opinion meant to indicate the quality of a fund’s underlying portfolio as well as the management team’s ability to deploy the fund’s investment strategy, and KFRs are only assigned to investment funds. KFRs are not credit ratings and are differentiated from KBRA Credit Ratings by the usage of a distinct ‘kf’ subscript. KFRs do not provide an indication of performance as it relates to returns, yield, volatility or peer analysis.

  • KBRA Indicative Rating: A rating of an entity, issuer or issuer obligation that is unpublished and confidential which reflects the analysis of one or more hypothetical scenarios. The rating reflects a point-in-time assessment and is not surveilled. Indicative Ratings are not credit ratings; however, they are expressed using KBRA’s long-term, short-term and IFSR rating scales.


1 Please refer to KBRA’s Rating Scales for a description of KBRA’s credit rating scales, Rating Outlook, Watch Status and other ratings products and information.

A downloadable version of our Rating Scales and Services can be accessed here.

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