[ESMA84-2037069784-2106 ] Report on CRA Market Share Calculation 2023

In order to enhance market competition among credit rating agencies (CRA) and to foster the use of smaller agencies for rating purposes, the European regulators developed Article 8d in the Credit Rating Agencies Regulation (CRAR). This article requires issuers or related third parties to „consider appointing at least one credit rating agency with no more than 10 % of the total market share“ in cases where there’s a rating assignment to two or more agencies for the same securities issuance. Naturally, this article only applies so long as there are small credit rating agencies capable of rating an issuance. Also, issuers may not comply with the requirement. In such case, they have to document their decisions accordingly. To enable issuers or related parties to assess the market shares of CRAs and their own requirements to rely on smaller agencies, same Article requires ESMA, the European Securities and Markets Authority, to publicize the market share information annually along with the classes of securities assessed by each agency.
ESMA, has now issued a corresponding report doing just that: outline the market shares of credit rating agencies based upon the annual turnover from credit rating activities and ancillary services in calendar year 2022. The document also sets out a list of security categories rated by each agency. The following table depicts the CRA market shares as disclosed by ESMA:
Figure 1 – CRA Market Shares