bond rating service founded 1976 1976 founder walter schroeder headquarters new york chicago london dbrs tower 181 university avenue suite 700 toronto canada products credit ratings financial research divisions dbrs limited ; dbrs inc. ; and dbrs ratings limited website www.dbrs.com dbrs is a credit rating agency cra founded in 1976 originally known as dominion bond rating service in toronto by walter schroeder who sold the company to a consortium led by the carlyle group and warburg pincus in december 2014 . dbrs is the largest rating agency in canada with other offices in new york chicago and london . dbrs comprises three affiliated operating companies dbrs limited ; dbrs inc. ; and dbrs ratings limited . daniel curry is the agency s ceo . dbrs is the fourth largest ratings agency in the world with about a 2.5 % global market share . dbrs is registered as a nationally recognized statistical rating organization from the united states securities and exchange commission sec one of only 10 companies to hold the designation . 1 dbrs is also registered with the european securities and markets authority esma and with the ontario securities commission osc in canada . the company is one of only four cras along with larger competitors standard & poor s moody s investors service and fitch ratings to receive ecai 2 recognition from the european central bank ecb . that designation indicates cras whose ratings can be used by the ecb to determine collateral requirements for borrowing from the ecb . 3 contents 1 history 2 corporate and operating structures 3 size 4 rating scale 4.1 rating scale long term obligations 10 4.2 rating scale commercial paper and short term debt 11 5 sovereign ratings 6 regulation 7 see also 8 references 9 external links history edit dbrs s niche is timely credit ratings that offer insight and transparency across a broad range of financial institutions corporate entities government bodies and various structured finance product groups in north america europe australasia and south america . based in toronto with offices in new york chicago and london dbrs is independently owned and operated is not affiliated with any institution or organization and does not partake in any trading or underwriting activities . the company was founded by walter schroeder who started sketching out a business plan while driving to montreal on a family vacation . he developed the ratings agency from scratch starting the company with less than 1 000 . the company opened its first office a tiny 1 500 square foot office in toronto . 4 since those beginnings dbrs has expanded to become the largest ratings agency in canada with major operation centers in the u.s. and europe . it first opened offices in chicago and new york in 2003 and opened its current office in london in 2010 . in 2008 the organization changed its name from dominion bond rating service to dbrs . today dbrs has more than 300 employees worldwide and rates more than 1 000 different companies and single purpose vehicles that issue commercial paper term debt and preferred shares in the global capital markets . 5 in december 2014 dbrs was sold to a consortium led by private equity firms the carlyle group and warburg pincus . 6 the deal closed on march 4 2015 . 7 8 corporate and operating structures edit dbrs limited is the operating company in canada . dbrs inc. is the operating company in the united states . dbrs ratings limited is the operating entity based in london and is home to the agency s broader european operations . dbrs limited rates structured finance and credit corporate finance financial institutions and infrastructure finance in canada . dbrs inc. rates structured finance and credit and u.s. based financial institutions from its u.s. offices . dbrs ratings ltd. rates structured finance and credit and european based financial institutions . global sovereign ratings analysis is done by analysts based in both the u.s. and u.k. size edit as of dec. 31 2012 dbrs rated about 50 000 total securities and about 2 500 total issuers . in the u.s. dbrs rates banks that account for about 92 % of u.s. banking assets as of dec. 31 2012 . dbrs s ratings in europe cover more than 60 % of the region s banking sector . dbrs provides rating coverage for more than 30 asset classes . dbrs currently rates 36 sovereigns and supranational organizations . one of the agency s goals is to rate remaining members of the 17 nation euro zone currency bloc . dbrs currently rates 10 countries that are part of the euro zone . 9 rating scale edit rating scale long term obligations 10 edit the dbrs long term rating scale provides an opinion on the risk of default . that is the risk that an issuer will fail to satisfy its financial obligations in accordance with the terms under which an obligations has been issued . ratings are based on quantitative and qualitative considerations relevant to the issuer and the relative ranking of claims . all rating categories other than aaa and d also contain subcategories high and low . the absence of either a high or low designation indicates the rating is in the middle of the category . dbrs s scale is similar to the ones used by standard & poor s and fitch ratings though it uses high and low instead of and symbols like s & p and fitch use . aaa highest credit quality . the capacity for the payment of financial obligations is exceptionally high and unlikely to be adversely affected by future events . aa superior credit quality . the capacity for the payment of financial obligations is considered high . credit quality differs from aaa only to a small degree . unlikely to be significantly vulnerable to future events . a good credit quality . the capacity for the payment of financial obligations is substantial but of lesser credit quality than aa . may be vulnerable to future events but qualifying negative factors are considered manageable . bbb adequate credit quality . the capacity for the payment of financial obligations is considered acceptable . may be vulnerable to future events . bb speculative non investment grade credit quality . the capacity for the payment of financial obligations is uncertain . vulnerable to future events . b highly speculative credit quality . there is a high level of uncertainty as to the capacity to meet financial obligations . ccc cc c very highly speculative credit quality . in danger of defaulting on financial obligations . there is little difference between these three categories although cc and c ratings are normally applied to obligations that are seen as highly likely to default or subordinated to obligations rated in the ccc to b range . obligations in respect of which default has not technically taken place but is considered inevitable may be rated in the c category . d a financial obligation has not been met or it is clear that a financial obligation will not be met in the near future or a debt instrument has been subject to a distressed exchange . a downgrade to d may not immediately follow an insolvency or restructuring filing as grace periods or extenuating circumstances may exist . rating scale commercial paper and short term debt 11 edit the dbrs short term debt rating scale provides an opinion on the risk that an issuer will not meet its short term financial obligations in a timely manner . ratings are based on quantitative and qualitative considerations relevant to the issuer and the relative ranking of claims . the r 1 and r 2 rating categories are further denoted by the subcategories high middle and low . r 1 high highest credit quality . the capacity for the payment of short term financial obligations as they fall due is exceptionally high . unlikely to be adversely affected by future events . r 1 middle superior credit quality . the capacity for the payment of short term financial obligations as they fall due is very high . differs from r 1 high by a relatively modest degree . unlikely to be significantly vulnerable to future events . r 1 low good credit quality . the capacity for the payment of short term financial obligations as they fall due is substantial . overall strength is not as favourable as higher rating categories . may be vulnerable to future events but qualifying negative factors are considered manageable . r 2 high upper end of adequate credit quality . the capacity for the payment of short term financial obligations as they fall due is acceptable . may be vulnerable to future events . r 2 middle adequate credit quality . the capacity for the payment of short term financial obligations as they fall due is acceptable . may be vulnerable to future events or may be exposed to other factors that could reduce credit quality . r 2 low lower end of adequate credit quality . the capacity for the payment of short term financial obligations as they fall due is acceptable . may be vulnerable to future events . a number of challenges are present that could affect the issuer s ability to meet such obligations . r 3 lowest end of adequate credit quality . there is a capacity for the payment of short term financial obligations as they fall due . may be vulnerable to future events and the certainty of meeting such obligations could be impacted by a variety of developments . r 4 speculative credit quality . the capacity for the payment of short term financial obligations as they fall due is uncertain . r 5 highly speculative credit quality . there is a high level of uncertainty as to the capacity to meet short term financial obligations as they fall due . d a financial obligation has not been met or it is clear that a financial obligation will not be met in the near future or a debt instrument has been subject to a distressed exchange . a downgrade to d may not immediately follow an insolvency or restructuring filing as grace periods other procedural considerations or extenuating circumstance may exist . sovereign ratings edit dbrs currently rates 36 sovereign and supranational ratings around the world . it currently rates 29 countries and 2 supranational the efsf and esm . 12 for dbrs a bond is considered investment grade if its credit rating is bbb low or higher . bonds rated bb high and below are considered to be speculative grade . country rating trend date ref . argentina 08 sd n a 2015 03 27 13 australia 22aaa stable 2014 07 31 13 austria 22aaa stable 2014 11 28 13 belgium 21aa high stable 2015 03 13 13 brazil 14bbb stable 2014 08 01 13 canada 22aaa stable 2014 07 18 13 chile 19aa low stable 2015 02 20 13 china 14a high stable 2014 09 29 13 colombia 14bbb stable 2014 04 30 13 cyprus 14b low stable 2014 12 05 13 denmark 22aaa stable 2015 01 23 13 european union 22aaa stable 2015 01 09 13 finland 22aaa stable 2014 11 07 13 france 22aaa negative 2014 11 07 13 germany 22aaa stable 2015 02 13 13 greece 22cc under review negative 2015 07 01 13 india 13bbb low positive 2014 11 05 13 ireland 16a stable 2015 03 13 13 italy 16a low negative 2014 10 10 13 japan 14a high stable 2014 11 20 13 mexico 14bbb high stable 2014 03 31 13 netherlands 22aaa stable 2015 03 06 13 norway 22aaa stable 2015 01 02 13 peru 14bbb high stable 2014 05 30 13 portugal 13bbb low stable 2014 11 21 13 spain 16a low stable 2014 10 10 13 sweden 22aaa stable 2014 12 05 13 switzerland 22aaa stable 2015 01 23 13