Fitch Ratings has been recognised as the Best Rating Agency for Islamic Finance for the fourth consecutive year by The Asset, a leading financial magazine in the Asia-Pacific.
Established in 1999 in Hong Kong, The Asset is a multi-media company whose publications, events and awards are widely followed by market participants in the Asia-Pacific region.
The awards are adjudicated by the publication’s Board of Editors and Benchmark Research team, who also obtained feedback and testimonials from issuers, investors and other market participants in Asia and the Middle-East as part of the evaluation process.
Fitch rates more Islamic banks than any other global credit rating agency, covering more than 35 Islamic finance-based issuers worldwide and more than 140 outstanding Islamic finance instruments. It has the largest market share of rupiah sukuk issuance in Indonesia.
Fitch has a dedicated sukuk rating criteria and provides takaful-specific considerations within its global insurance rating criteria. It also provides specific consideration to environment, social and governance factors in its ESG scores in rating Islamic banks and was the leading agency to provide globally standardised cross-sector rating action commentaries.
Recent landmark deals in which Fitch participated include the first sovereign green sukuk, issued by Indonesia in 2018, and its follow-up issue in 2019 and 2020, as well as the first benchmark US dollar corporate green sukuk issued by Majid Al Futtaim in 2019.
Fitch also rated the first Formosa sukuk issued by Qatar Islamic Bank in January 2020 that was listed on the Taipei Stock Exchange. The agency also rated DP World’s hybrid sukuk in 2020, which is the first corporate hybrid sukuk to have an international rating.
In addition, Fitch rated Islamic Development Bank’s first sustainability sukuk, which aims to help member countries tackle the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The agency’s Global Head of Islamic Finance Bashar Al Natoor and the Islamic Finance Group coordinate all Islamic finance activities and expertise across the Sovereign, Financial Institutions, Corporates, Structured Finance, Infrastructure, and Insurance teams worldwide.
Source Fitch Ratings