Corporate Debt Ratings

Corporate Debt Ratings assess the likelihood of timely repayment of principal and payment of interest over the term to maturity of such debts.

Issuer Ratings

Issuer Ratings provide a current opinion of an issuer’s overall financial capacity to meet its senior unsecured financial obligations and do not apply to any specific financial obligation. This assessment does not take into account any form of credit enhancement on the issuer’s obligations and the legality and enforceability of those obligations.

Issuer Rating product is in line with the shelf registration scheme introduced to the Malaysian capital market.

Structured Finance Ratings

Structured Finance Ratings assess the likelihood of timely repayment of principal and payment of interest on debt securities issued by a corporate, usually a single purpose vehicle, against stable income-generating assets, e.g. hire purchase receivables, toll collections, rental income, etc.

Islamic Capital Market Instrument Ratings

Islamic Capital Market Instrument Ratings assess the likelihood of timely repayment of the instruments issued under the various Islamic financing contract(s). MARC’s assigned ratings on fixed-income Sukuk essentially reflect MARC’s opinion on the likelihood of full and timely payment of obligations under the Sukuk. The assigned rating(s) are differentiated from ratings on conventional debt offerings and other fixed-income Islamic capital market instruments. MARC adds ‘IS’ as a subscript to eight long-term rating categories from ‘AAA’ to ‘D’ and the ‘MARC-1’ to ‘MARC-D’ short-term rating scale to differentiate its Sukuk ratings. An ‘ID’ subscript is used for MARC’s other fixed-income Islamic debt securities. MARC’s Syariah Advisory Panel advises MARC on the Syariah aspects of Islamic financial instruments, reviews and endorses new or variations to Islamic rating products and rating definitions and ensures that compliance with Syariah principles are maintained.

Financial Institution Ratings

Financial Institution Ratings assess the creditworthiness of financial institutions, i.e. commercial and investment banks and finance companies.

Corporate Credit Ratings

Corporate Credit Ratings are a measure of a corporate's intrinsic ability and overall capacity for timely repayment of its financial obligations. These are voluntary ratings that may be sought by a company to enhance corporate governance and transparency.

These ratings are useful for:
  1. benchmarking a company against its peers
  2. enhancing investors' confidence
  3. market profiling
  4. reducing time for future debt ratings
  5. enhancing a company's standing for counterparty risk purposes
  6. facilitating credit evaluation for bank borrowings and bank credit lines

Insurer Financial Strength Ratings

MARC’s Insurer Financial Strength (IFR) Ratings are opinions of the ability of the insurer to meet obligations to policyholders and contractholders on a timely basis. The IFS Rating is assigned to the insurer itself, and not to specific obligations. The IFS Rating does not address the willingness of the insurer to honour its obligations, and the timeliness of payments is considered relative to industry norms given the possibility of claims reviews, fraud investigation and coverage disputes. IFS Ratings can be assigned to insurer and reinsurers in any insurance sector, including life, non-life, property/casualty and financial guaranty. The IFS Rating uses the same ratings scale and symbols used by MARC for its national ratings of long-term debt obligations and issuers. Rating definitions, however, reflect the unique aspects of the IFS Rating within the insurance industry context.

Islamic Financial Institution Governance Ratings

Islamic Financial Institution Governance Ratings assess the corporate governance of an Islamic Financial Institution (IFI). IFI governance ratings are an assessment of how the IFI promotes sound governance transparency and accountability and institutional capacity-building for improved governance.

Sovereign Issuer Credit Ratings

Sovereign Issuer Credit Ratings are intended to be assessments of the ability and willingness of a sovereign government to repay its debt obligations in a full and timely manner. These ratings will be assigned to sovereign governments on a domestic rating scale, providing an indication of their creditworthiness relative to other domestic and foreign issuers in MARC's rating universe.