DBRS Limited

DBRS Limited is an international rating agency founded in 1976. The agency is headquartered in Toronto (Canada). DBRS is a major rating agency, fourth after the Big Three (Moody’s, S&P, and Fitch).

DBRS assigns credit ratings both to companies and to the bonds issued by them. The Cbonds database contains about 670 ratings from this agency. Of these, around 500 are active (not withdrawn).

Currently, DBRS assigns credit ratings to issuers and issues on 11 scales, namely:

1. Financial Strength Rating. Examples include Canada Life Assurance, SIAT, and UnipolSai Assicurazioni. This scale assigns ratings to insurance companies.

2. Issuer Rating – Examples include Brookfield Corporation, British Columbia, and Walmart

3. Long-Term Debt. On this scale, the majority of ratings are assigned to municipal sector issuers, for example, Manitoba, Montreal, and Toronto

4. Long-Term Deposits – the scale by which banks are rated, for example, Swedbank

5. Long-Term Foreign Currency - Issuer Rating. These are ratings in foreign currency and are assigned to states, for instance, Japan, Brazil, and Argentina

6. Long-Term Issuer Rating, for instance, Avis Budget Group

7. Long-Term Local Currency - Issuer Rating. These are sovereign ratings assigned in national currency; for example, Malta

8. Long-Term Senior Debt. An example is Stellus Capital Investment Corp

9. Senior Unsecured Debentures, such as Co-operators Financial Services

10. Senior Unsecured Debt – Stellantis, Transcontinental, and Wilfrid Laurier University

11. Senior Unsubordinated Debt, e.g., Sagen MI Canada

The table below shows the correspondence between the rating scales of the Big Three and DBRS agencies.