Fitch Ratings has been recognized as the best rating agency for structured finance at FinanceAsia's annual 2019 achievement awards and was also voted Australian structured finance rating agency of the year by KangaNews. FinanceAsia also named Fitch as the best credit ratings agency for financial institutions and public finance.
The awards were granted based on feedback from market participants. FinanceAsia conducted 350 interviews, including with 100 of Asia's top investors and 25 of the largest market cap corporations from 10 countries and administrative regions. The award from KangaNews was decided by a thorough poll of Australian and New Zealand debt market participants.
Fitch has the largest market share for structured finance and covered bond ratings in Asia-Pacific, excluding Japan. The agency rates the most asset-backed securities in Australia, New Zealand, India and South Korea, as well as covered bonds in Australia and New Zealand. Fitch was also the first to introduce environmental, social and governance relevance scores for structured finance and covered bond transactions and the first to publish auto and consumer asset-backed securities and residential mortgage-backed securities indices in China.
In the financial institutions sector, Fitch was one of the first to warn of shadow banking risks in China and capital adequacy issues at Indian banks. It commands the largest rating share of Asia-Pacific leasing transactions and Tier-2 bank issuances. Fitch also rates the top 10 insurers and is the leading agency for rating insurance hybrid bonds in the region.
Fitch is the leading public finance agency across Asia-Pacific, rating more than 250 local and regional governments as well as public-sector entities in the region. It has the largest share of public issuances by local public finance issuers and rates the most public finance issuers in China - the region's largest public finance market. Other achievements include being a leading agency to rate Asian offshore public finance green bonds since 2018, rating the first offshore local-government financing vehicle in India (Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund) as well as the first government-related entity in the Maldives.