financial services founded 1914 ; 102 years ago 1914 founder john knowles fitch headquarters new york city united states and london united kingdom key people paul taylor president & ceo revenue 732.5 million 2011 1 owner hearst corporation 80 % fimalac 20 % 2 number of employees 2 000 approximate website www.fitchratings.com fitch ratings inc. is one of the big three credit rating agencies 3 the other two being moody s and standard & poor s. it is one of the three nationally recognized statistical rating organizations nrsro designated by the u.s. securities and exchange commission in 1975 . fitch ratings is dual headquartered in new york usa and london uk . 4 hearst owns 80 % of the company following its acquisition of an additional 30 percent interest in global ratings agency fitch group on december 12 2014 . the transaction was valued at 1.965 billion . hearst s previous equity interest was 50 % following expansions on an original acquisition on 2006 . the remaining 20 % of fitch is owned by fimalac sa . fimalac will hold 50 % of votes within that board until 2020 . 8 fitch ratings and fitch solutions are part of the fitch group . the firm was founded by john knowles fitch on december 24 1914 in new york city as the fitch publishing company . it merged with london based ibca limited in december 1997 . in 2000 fitch acquired both chicago based duff & phelps credit rating co. april and thomson financial bankwatch december . fitch ratings is the smallest of the big three nrsros covering a more limited share of the market than s & p and moody s though it has grown with acquisitions and frequently positions itself as a tie breaker when the other two agencies have ratings similar but not equal in scale . in september 2011 fitch group announced the sale of algorithmics risk analytics software to ibm for 387 million . 9 the deal closed on october 21 2011 . 10 contents 1 investment scale 2 short term credit ratings 3 fitch solutions 4 criticism 5 see also 6 references 7 external links investment scale edit fitch ratings long term credit ratings are assigned on an alphabetic scale from aaa to d first introduced in 1924 and later adopted and licensed by s & p. moody s also uses a similar scale but names the categories differently . like s & p fitch also uses intermediate modifiers for each category between aa and ccc e.g. aa aa aa a a a bbb bbb bbb etc. . investment grade aaa the best quality companies reliable and stable aa quality companies a bit higher risk than aaa a economic situation can affect finance bbb medium class companies which are satisfactory at the moment non investment grade bb more prone to changes in the economy b financial situation varies noticeably ccc currently vulnerable and dependent on favorable economic conditions to meet its commitments cc highly vulnerable very speculative bonds c highly vulnerable perhaps in bankruptcy or in arrears but still continuing to pay out on obligations d has defaulted on obligations and fitch believes that it will generally default on most or all obligations nr not publicly rated short term credit ratings edit fitch s short term ratings indicate the potential level of default within a 12 month period . f1 best quality grade indicating exceptionally strong capacity of obligor to meet its financial commitment f1 best quality grade indicating strong capacity of obligor to meet its financial commitment f2 good quality grade with satisfactory capacity of obligor to meet its financial commitment f3 fair quality grade with adequate capacity of obligor to meet its financial commitment but near term adverse conditions could impact the obligor s commitments b of speculative nature and obligor has minimal capacity to meet its commitment and vulnerability to short term adverse changes in financial and economic conditions c possibility of default is high and the financial commitment of the obligor are dependent upon sustained favorable business and economic conditions d the obligor is in default as it has failed on its financial commitments . fitch solutions edit launched in 2008 fitch solutions offers a range of fixed income products and professional development services for financial professionals . the firm also distributes fitch ratings proprietary credit ratings research financial data and analytical tools . criticism edit see also credit rating agency criticism credit rating agencies such as fitch ratings have been subject to criticism in the wake of large losses in the collateralized debt obligation cdo market that occurred despite being assigned top ratings by the cras . for instance losses on 340.7 million worth of collateralized debt obligations cdo issued by credit suisse group added up to about 125 million despite being rated aaa by fitch . 5 however differently from the other agencies fitch has been warning the market on the constant proportion debt obligations cpdo with an early and pre crisis report highlighting the dangers of cpdo s. 6 see also edit fimalac kroll bond rating agency list of countries by credit rating moody s investors service spread research standard and poor s references edit group fitch . 2011 fiscal . fimalac . retrieved 26 march 2012 . https www.fitchratings.com about http www.juneauempire.com stories 050509 opi 436594375 . shtml http hugin.info 143461 r 1601708 505879.pdf tomlinson richard ; evans david 2007 06 01 cdos mask huge subprime losses abetted by credit rating agencies international herald tribune linden alexandre ; neugebauer matthias ; schiavetta john ; zelter jill ; hardee rachel 2007 04 18 first generation cpdo case study on performance and ratings external links edit fitch ratings fitch solutions fitch learning u.s. credit fitch ratings v t e hearst daily newspapers the advocate times union beaumont enterprise connecticut post edwardsville intelligencer greenwich time houston chronicle huron daily tribune laredo morning times midland daily news midland reporter telegram the news times plainview daily herald san antonio express news san francisco chronicle seattlepi.com weekly newspapers la voz de houston magazines united states car and driver cosmopolitan country living elle elle decor esquire food network magazine good housekeeping harper s bazaar harper by harper s bazaar house beautiful marie claire us o the oprah magazine popular mechanics redbook road & track seventeen town & country woman s day cds global hearst magazines digital media ellegirl.com espin international all about soap company digital spy elle esquire inside soap psychologies quo sugar television stations by affiliation abc ketv khbs khog kmbc koat koco wapt wcvb wisn wjcl wmur wmtw wpbf wtae other cbs kcci wlky cw kcwe wkcf independent wmor tv mynetworktv kqca kcci nbc kcra ksbw wbal wdsu wesh wgal wlwt wptz wnne wvtm wxii wyff radio stations wbal wiyy entertainment and syndication a e networks 50 % awesomenesstv 25 % cosmopolitan television part owner dailyink espn inc. 20 % esquire network 50 % king features syndicate northsouth productions 50 % realage reed brennan media associates business media electronic products first databank fitch ratings 80 % bmi research motor real estate hearst tower hearst service center hearst ranch v t e nationally recognized statistical rating organizations nrsros standard & poor s moody s investors service fitch ratings kroll bond rating agency a.m. best company dominion bond rating service japan credit rating agency egan jones rating company morningstar inc. ratings and investment information inc. withdrawn retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title fitch ratings & oldid 731746827 categories credit rating agenciescompanies established in 1913financial services companies of the united statescompanies based in new york cityfinancial services companies based in new york city1913 establishments in new york navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view 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