In the 1980’s we at RATING EVIDENCE GmbH got to know ratings of American agencies. Even back then, these agencies were 80 years old, since they started operating shortly after the turn of the century. For decades, there were comparatively few changes in these agencies, as it was not until the 1980s that computers became available that significantly changed the rules by which ratings could be created and disseminated.

The new information and communication technologies, coupled with advanced data processing, have enabled more data to be considered in the rating than ever before, as well as to deliver results to a wider audience. While US agencies were present in only a few dozen countries in the 1980s, today they are in more than 110 countries.

With the emergence of new financial products, the areas of application of ratings also widened. Today, there is hardly any financial product that would not also be accessible to a rating. Due to the strong regulation of financial products, and in particular due to the different intervention of governments in the financial markets, numerous different rating approaches have developed. It is therefore important to work towards the comparability of ratings in order to provide investors with a better basis for decision-making.

In the future, social credit systems will play an increasingly important role as they imply an even more comprehensive judgment on natural and legal persons.