Fund Ratings

Related Products and Resources

ResourcesFund Ratings Research Fund Ratings List Local Governments Investment Pools (and profiles)Meet The Team

Overview

S&P Global Ratings has been rating funds since 1984, with ratings on over 500 funds. We provide ratings on various types of funds, including

Money Market Funds
Bond Funds
Local Government Investment Pools (LGIPs)
Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)
Separate Accounts
Unit Investment Trusts

Our Fund Credit Ratings’ analytical team has the deep knowledge and experience necessary to assess and rate the various fund structures in the market. The team is made up of 21 professionals with nearly 240 cumulative years with S&P Global and approximately 200 years with the Fund Credit Ratings team.

Benefits of our Fund Ratings

For Asset Managers/Fund Sponsors:

Ongoing credit/liquidity/market risk evaluation
Internal and external communication of quality & composition of funds
Asset growth/retention

For Fund Investors:

Fund selection
Regulatory/Compliance purposes
Periodic credit/liquidity/market risk evaluation

Guide To Fund Ratings

We rate different types of managed funds within 3 different teams, with the appropriate expertise, using specifically tailored criteria for each type of fund. View our brochure below to learn more.

Learn more

Funds Research

The funds industry’s continued growth and expansion to an ever increasing number of investors has been met with rising pressures for greater transparency, with many investors taking a progressive interest in the assessment of the risks facing both the funds and their managers. Our dedicated funds research page provides key industry analysis, insights and trends on the factors affecting the market today.

Read the Latest Research

Alternative Investment Funds

We assign global scale counterparty credit ratings to assess the stand-alone creditworthiness of several types of Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), based on the investments they make, trading strategies they employ, and funding structures they maintain. We also assign issue ratings to debt instruments issued out of AIF structures.

Alternative Investment Funds typically include:

– Private equity funds

– Hedge funds

– Credit funds

– Fund of funds

Assets within these funds can include but are not limited to:

– Commodities

– Global real estate

– Leveraged loans

– Start-up companies

– Unlisted securities

– Private equity debt

– Private debt

– Derivatives

For rated private equity structures, we consider whether the funds are primarily buy and hold with a focus on harvesting investments. We also consider the funds’ maturity attributes (e.g. final maturity within 7–12 years).

In our ratings of hedge funds, we consider factors such as trading strategy, whether the portfolio has meaningful turnover, and funds itself with capital that varies in degree of permanence.

In cases where AIFs are not structured as private equity funds or hedge funds, we consider whether the fund has characteristics similar to a hedge fund or private equity fund, and executes a strategy that includes elements of both private equity investment and hedge fund trading in order to determine its ratability within the AIF criteria.

We rate AIFs on either a private/confidential or public basis.

Collateralized Fund Obligations (CFOs)

The CFO criteria is designed to rate debt backed by a diversified fund of funds. The criteria and models are limited to assessing funds of funds with the following underlying fund characteristics:

– Asset types: the assets backing the debt must be Limited Partnership

(LP) interests in diversified funds. They cannot be individual private

equity investments themselves, such as debt, equity or co-investments.

– Fund types: we can assess diversified venture capital, buyout and

mezzanine funds (we are not able to rate concentrated specialty sector

funds, such as those invested exclusively in real estate, commodities,

infrastructure, etc.)

– Geographic scope: investments can be in U.S., European,

or Asian assets.

– Diversification: the funds must be well diversified across fund types,

geographies, industries, fund vintages, and fund managers.

Guide To Private Debt Markets

At S&P Global Ratings, our independent opinions on creditworthiness can help provide private debt market participants with greater access to capital, potentially resulting in a cheaper cost of funds.