A credit rating agency (CRA) is a company that assigns credit ratings for issuers of certain types of debt obligations as well as the debt instruments themselves.Credit rating agencies played a very important role at various stages in the subprime crisis. They have been highly criticized for understating the risk involved The Big Three credit rating agencies are Standard & Poor's (S&P), Moody's, & Fitch Group. S&P & Moody's are US-based, while Fitch is dual-headquartered The largest credit rating agencies (which tend to operate worldwide) are Dun & Bradstreet, Moody's, Standard & Poor's

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