ACRA (rating agency)

ACRA (Analytical Credit Rating Agency; Russian: Аналитическое Кредитное Рейтинговое Агентство) is a rating agency based in Moscow, Russia. It was established in 2015,[1] with Yekaterina Trofimova as CEO.[2]

Due to the withdrawal of US-based rating agencies because of legislative changes and sanctions against Russia,[3] ACRA is expected by analysts to become Russia's main ratings issuer.[4] ACRA does not issue ratings to companies outside of Russia.[2]

ACRA is deemed too demanding by a number of Russian companies, and is compared unfavorably to its competitor Expert RA, which is seen as putting its customers first.[5] In January 2017 VTB Bank refused to disclose the rating it received from ACRA, just noting that it was even lower than the 'politicized' rating assigned by western agencies.[6] By July 2017 the agency had issued over 40 ratings.[7]

ACRA assigns national scale credit ratings to financial institutions, corporate sector companies, regional and municipal authorities of the Russian Federation and their financial instruments. It will issue national scale ratings to pension funds, asset managers as well as to the structured financial instruments.

ACRA is engaged in research and forecasting and has developed ACRA Financial Stress Index (ACRA FSI), which is used to evaluate the possibility of financial crisis in Russia.

The agency was accused of benefiting from state favoritism by Expert RA, a local competitor.[8]