Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) issued notifications dated May 30, 2018 and Sep 11, 2018 and circular dated Sep 19, 2018, amending the SEBI Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs) Regulations, 1999 by defining the permitted set of activities that can be carried out by a CRA.

Crisil has fully aligned its ratings activities based on the SEBI norms. Crisil Ratings, a division of Crisil Limited, will only perform activities that are allowed to be carried out by a CRA, till these are hived off to Crisil Ratings Limited (a 100% subsidiary of Crisil Limited). Till then, Crisil Ratings will continue to operate as a firewalled business within Crisil, with appropriate governance structures.

In compliance with SEBI regulations and subsequent clarifications received from SEBI, four products (Broker Quality Grading, Financial Strength Rating, Private Credit Assessment, and Advanced Rating Service) have been discontinued with effect from May 31, 2020. The outstanding ratings and gradings for these products have been withdrawn (Refer Table A).

Further, with effect from May 30, 2020, two products (Governance & Value Creation Ratings and Fund Management Capability Ratings) have been segregated and transferred to Crisil’s Research division, which will independently offer this product going forward. Existing ratings for clients who have shown interest to continue with these two products have been transferred to Crisil Research (Refer Table B), while the others have been withdrawn (Refer Table A).

Crisil Ratings has always been a pioneer in innovation, and will continue to work with the regulator to introduce relevant new products that can further help in the development of debt capital markets in India, and to enhance the breadth of tools available to investors to aid their decisions.

A. Products where gradings or ratings have been withdrawn: