User:Lilahrap/Rapid Ratings

Rapid Ratings is a

History
The framework for Rapid Ratings' Financial Health Ratings (FHR™) technology was created by economist Dr. Patrick Caragata in 1991. He led the design and implementation of the models and initial software from 1998-2001 in New Zealand, and then shifted the head office to Australia. In 2007, the company was brought to New York by James H. Gellert (CEO) and Douglas M. Cameron (COO), where it is now based.

In the 1970s, Moody's expanded into commercial debt, and also began the practice, along with other ratings agencies, of charging bond issuers for ratings as well as charging investors.

"Without a government endorsement, independent firms like CreditSights and Rapid Ratings have persuaded investors to pay for their judgments on public companies."(http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303678704576442433389098862.html)

"James H. Gellert, chief executive of Manhattan-based Rapid Ratings International, which seeks to knock the crown off the Big Three, compared this technological moment in the credit ratings industry to the change from typewriters to computers or from whale oil to petroleum. Gellert and the chairman of an emerging ratings firm that bears his name, Jules B. Kroll, testified that Dodd-Frank doesn't do much to promote competition, and depending on how the SEC implements the rules, could actually quash the ability of smaller competitors to offer an alternative." (http://www.newsday.com/opinion/oped/michaud-more-credit-raters-a-better-idea-1.3056583)

"The number of countries covered by Moody's has risen from 3 in 1975, to 33 in 1990, to over 100 by 2000. Announcements by Moody's of possible or actual downgrades of a country's bond rating can have a major political and economic impact, as for example in Canada in 1995 and the United States in 2011.

Rapid Ratings is a subscriber-paid firm. They use a proprietary, software-based system to rate the financial health of public and private companies and financial instutitions. (number of companies), rerating all US filers quarterly. They use financial statements, not market inputs, analysts, and without the help of bankers or advisors. It is not an NRSRO nor does it plan to apply to be NRSRO status.

Rapid Ratings was the only non‐Big‐3 credit rating agency invited to speak at the SEC Roundtable ratings competition panel in 2009 and to testify for ___. (cornaggia)