The Federal Law of the Russian Federation No. 222-FZ "About activities of credit rating agencies in the Russian Federation, about modification of Article 76.1 of the Federal Law "About Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia)" and recognition voided separate provisions of legal acts of the Russian Federation" came into force on July 13, 2015.

The Law is aimed to ensure the independence of credit rating agencies and transparency of their activities, as well to protect the rights of the rated entities and users of credit ratings.

Now the terms of credit rating agency, rating activity, credit rating, rated entity, the ranking object, rating category, the rating scale (including international and national), sovereign credit rating, unsolicited credit rating, credit rating forecast, rating analyst and methodology as the document of credit rating agency are statutorily prescribed.

The Bank of Russia is required to maintain the Registry of credit rating agencies, which are not allowed to carry out other types of activity, and with a minimum share capital of 50 mln. RUB.

The national rating scale is used only for Russian rating objects and the decisions of foreign authorities can’t influence on withdrawal of their rating.

The activity of branches of foreign credit rating agencies is allowed for some elements of rating.

The Law sets the number of requirements to the founders (shareholders, participants) of credit rating agencies, which are aimed to ensure the independence of their activity; the most important requirement is the limiting of each owner’s share to 10% (to 20% - for credit organizations).

On August 18, 2015 Information agency Credinform celebrated the 21^st birthday. We thank our customers for the congratulations and positive feedback about our work  - it is confirmation of high demand and quality of our services.