Rating Appeals Policy

Effective Date: 13 June 2017

1. Capital Intelligence Ratings Ltd (CI) aims to produce ratings and reports which are as fair and accurate as possible.
2. Accordingly, CI will make every reasonable effort to ensure that no material information is overlooked and that rated entities are given every reasonable opportunity to dispute and appeal a rating action (i.e. a change or affirmation of the rating and/or outlook).
3. A rated entity may appeal the rating committee’s rating decision before it is published, irrespective of the solicitation status of the rating.
4. A rated entity’s request that CI reconsider a rating action shall be considered on a case-by-case basis by the relevant primary analyst and the chairman of the appropriate rating committee (or vice-chairman if the primary analyst and regular chairman is the same person).
5. CI is aware of the possibility that a rated entity may attempt to use the appeals process to delay a rating action, especially a downgrade, and an appeal will be rejected in the absence of appropriate documentation.

 

Grounds for Appeal

6. The rating action agreed by the rating committee shall generally be re-considered where one or more of the following grounds for appeal apply:
   1. The rated entity provides CI with new important information that was not previously available to the rating committee; or
   2. The rated entity provides CI with clear evidence that material information which had a significant bearing on the rating outcome was missed or misinterpreted by the rating committee.

 

Appeals Procedure

7. The rated entity must inform the primary analyst in writing (via email or fax) of the intention to formally appeal the rating action agreed by the rating committee and must provide information or evidence consistent with the grounds for appeal (above) within the time limit for comments stipulated in the advance copy of the publication that contains the rating action (this will either be a credit rating report or a credit rating announcement). That time limit will generally be five business days but may be one business day in the case of urgent rating reviews.
8. The primary analyst, after consulting the committee chairman, may grant the rated entity additional time to provide the information if there is a valid reason for the delay and provided it would not conflict with CI’s legal obligation to review credit ratings at least once every 12 months.
9. The primary analyst will review the information and discuss the appeal with the committee chairman. A decision of whether or not to reconsider the rating action shall be based solely on the criteria indicated in paragraph 6 above.

 

Rating Committee Procedure

10. If the primary analyst and the committee chairman deem that an appeal is warranted, the rating committee will be reconvened to discuss the rating action. In the event of disagreement, the opinion of the chairman will prevail (or vice-chairman if the primary analyst and regular chairman is the same person). Where an appeal is granted the chairman should invite, whenever possible, at least one senior analyst who did not participate in the assignment of the original rating to attend the meeting.
11. The primary analyst must submit to the rating committee a memorandum outlining the rated entity’s reasons for appealing the rating decision together with his or her opinion of whether or not the original rating action should be sustained. The information provided by the rated entity should be attached to the memorandum or made available to committee members during the rating meeting. Where the primary analyst deems changes to be appropriate, an updated or corrected draft credit rating report must also be presented to the rating committee. The subsequent decision of the rating committee shall be final and will not be subject to further appeal.

 

Appeal Disclosures

12. Where a rated entity has appealed a publicly available rating decision and the rating action has been subsequently revised, CI shall state in credit rating announcements and credit rating reports that the rating action has been disclosed to the rated entity and amended following that disclosure.