Nordic Credit Rating (NCR) today published its amended Corporate Rating Methodology. This publication follows our request for comment, titled "Supplementary request for comment: Corporate Rating Methodology", published on 23 Sep. 2026.
NCR also published an amended Investment Holding Company Rating Methodology, as it shares many analytical concepts and structural features with the amended Corporate Rating Methodology. The changes are intended to maintain consistency across our methodologies and reflect corresponding updates where the analytical approaches overlap.
Key changes from the previous methodology
The key changes include:
- introducing an indicative credit assessment matrix that combines business risk and financial risk assessments, replacing the previous 50/50 weighting approach;
- combining the market position and size and diversification subfactors into a single business risk subfactor and introducing greater flexibility in the weighting of business risk factors;
- introducing greater granularity in financial risk assessments, including additional ratio categories and supplementary financial ratios;
- introducing sector-specific criteria and ratio frameworks for regulated utilities;
- enhancing the treatment of liquidity, including the potential for positive or negative rating adjustments based on liquidity strength;
- simplifying issue-rating principles and introducing formal criteria for assessing the equity content of hybrid securities; and
- updating the methodology throughout to improve transparency, consistency and readability.
Adjustments following the request for comment
Following publication of the supplementary request for comment, NCR has made a limited number of further refinements to the methodology.
The most significant change was a recalibration of the business risk assessment for real estate management companies, placing greater emphasis on portfolio quality and asset-related characteristics. Other changes were primarily clarifications, drafting improvements and calibration refinements intended to improve transparency, consistency and usability.
For the changes between the supplementary request for comment and the final methodology, as well as a summary of the comments received during the process, see "Summary of feedback on the Corporate Rating Methodology revision".
Impact on published ratings
The revisions do not change NCR's view of the fundamental drivers of corporate credit risk. NCR does not currently expect the revisions to have a major impact on in-scope ratings, although a small number of individual ratings may be affected.
All issuers with ratings based on the Corporate Rating Methodology have been placed Under Criteria Review (UCR). NCR will seek to complete these reviews as soon as practicable and no later than six months from today.
A list of issuers placed on UCR can be seen at:
https://nordiccreditrating.com/ratings-research/issuers
NCR's methodologies are available at:
https://nordiccreditrating.com/governance/methodologies
Market responses to our request for comments on the draft are available here.
Contacts:
Andreas Kindahl, Chief Rating Officer, +46702053453, andreas.kindahl@nordiccreditrating.com
Sean Cotten, Lead Senior Analyst, +46735600337, sean.cotten@nordiccreditrating.com