CHAPTER 3 CERTIFICATION

SECTION 1 Application for certification

Article 26 Information for application for certification

  1. (1)

    A credit rating agency shall provide the FCA with the following information:

    1. (a)

      the general information requested in points 1 to 10 of Annex II;

    2. (b)

      the information regarding its owners referred to in Article 8;

    3. (c)

      the organisational chart referred to in Article 10;

    4. (d)

      details on the arrangements in place to prevent, disclose and mitigate any existing or potential conflicts of interest between the rating business and ancillary services;

    5. (e)

      the information referred to in Article 13 regarding the credit rating agency’s financial resources.

  2. (2)

    A credit rating agency shall provide the FCA with the following information regarding its business activities:

    1. (a)

      for the preceding three years, the number of employees contracted and involved in the rating and ancillary services both permanent and temporary;

    2. (b)

      if the applicant has a branch, the number of employees involved in the rating and ancillary business in each branch;

    3. (c)

      the number of rating analysts contracted to the applicant including, if the credit rating agency has a branch, the number of rating analysts contracted in each branch;

    4. (d)

      if a credit rating agency is planning to establish a new branch, a description of the type of business activities the new branch is expected to conduct, its full name and address and the timeframe for its establishment;

    5. (e)

      if a credit rating agency is planning to conduct any new ancillary services, a description of the new services and the timeframe for their commencement;

    6. (f)

      the revenue generated over the past three years by the credit rating agency from rating and ancillary services as a proportion of total revenue, presented on a financial year basis;

    7. (g)

      if the credit rating agency has one or more branches, the revenue generated over the past three years by each branch as a proportion of total revenue, presented on a financial year basis.

  3. (3)

    A credit rating agency shall also provide the FCA with the following information regarding the credit ratings it issues or proposes to issue:

    1. (a)

      the class of credit ratings;

    2. (b)

      the rating nomenclatures used for each class of credit rating;

    3. (c)

      the definition of any rating action and statuses used by the credit rating agency;

    4. (d)

      details of whether the credit rating agency produces solicited or unsolicited ratings or both;

    5. (e)

      for each class of credit rating, the number of years of experience it has in producing these ratings;

    6. (f)

      for each class of credit rating, the current or expected proportion of public ratings and private ratings.