Oliver Everling (Publisher): Rating – Opportunity for SMEs according to Basel II. Concepts for Credit Assessment, Key to Financing, Betriebswirtschaftlicher Verlag Th. Gabler, Wiesbaden 1st edition December 2001, http://www.gabler-verlag.de, hardcover, 700 pages, ISBN 3-409-11812-8.

As recently as the 1980s, ratings in the German-speaking world were regarded as a peculiarity of the US capital markets. At that time, ratings and rating agencies in at least 50 countries were also widespread outside the United States. At first it seemed that differences in the financial systems were responsible for the fact that ratings did not spread in Germany: the universal banking system here, the segregation banking system there. Too big were the opposites. On the one side of the Atlantic, virtually every company present on the capital market was already equipped with ratings, on the other side of which the circle of rated companies was limited to those that served the international financial markets. Even for this circle the relevance of ratings had to be questioned.

What benefit should be associated with the classification of globally known “first” addresses? So the creditworthiness of such companies in financial circles was long known! However, it was precisely the Siemens group that was the first address in the industry in Germany to be rated as an independent agency. “Rating” has long since developed into an indispensable business card on the international financial markets. Those who were above any credit rating found that rating was a crucial additional element of building trust among financiers. For business partners around the world, the rating is the essential signal for assessing the viability of a company.

Oliver Everling (Herausgeber): Rating – Chance für den Mittelstand nach Basel II. Konzepte zur Bonitätsbeurteilung, Schlüssel zur Finanzierung, Betriebswirtschaftlicher Verlag Dr. Th. Gabler, Wiesbaden 1. Auflage Dezember 2001, http://www.gabler-verlag.de, gebundene Ausgabe, 700 Seiten, ISBN 3-409-11812-8.