Credit Rating Agencies’ 2014 market share calculations for the purposes of Article 8d of the CRA Regulation

One of the objectives of the CRA Regulation is to increase competition in the markets for credit ratings by encouraging issuers to use smaller credit rating agencies. To this end, Article 8d(1) of the CRA Regulation states that where issuers or related third parties intend to appoint at least two CRAs to rate an issuance or entity, they shall consider appointing at least one CRA with no more than 10% of the total market share. They will consider this where the issuer or related third party finds that such a CRA is capable of rating the relevant issuance or entity and there is such a CRA available to rate the issuance or entity in question.Where it is not possible to appoint at least one CRA with no more than 10% of the total market share, the issuer or related third party shall document this. The obligations in Article 8d are supervised and enforced at national level by sectoral competent authorities.To help issuers and related third parties carry out this evaluation, Article 8d(2) of the CRA Regulation requires ESMA to publish a list of CRAs registered in the European Union (EU) on its website every year, indicating their total market share and the types of credit ratings issued.