Posted Date : 20 Oct 2009

Malaysian Rating Corporation Berhad (“MARC”) entered into a Technical Collaboration Agreement with Emerging Credit Rating Limited (“ECRL”) of Bangladesh today. Under the agreement, MARC will assume the role of technical partner to ECRL, providing consultancy and advisory in the development of ECRL’s credit rating methodologies and training in credit analysis.

Representing MARC at the signing were its Chairman, En. Mohammad Abdullah and its CEO, En Mohd Razlan Mohamed, while ECRL were represented by its Chairman, Dr. Jamaluddin Ahmed and its Managing Director, Mr. NKA Mobin.

ECRL is currently on the final leg of obtaining approvals from Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission for the purpose of obtaining a domestic credit rating agency license.  There is vast potential for credit rating services in Bangladesh, a key driver of which has been local banking regulatory requirements such as that for bank loan ratings, mandatory credit ratings for IPO purposes and financial institution ratings under BASEL II framework.  Bangladesh economy has remained largely unaffected by the recent global financial crisis. Its predominantly SME-based manufacturing economy expanded by 6% in 2008 and registered positive GDP growth of 5.2% in the first 2 quarters of 2009.

With this technical agreement, ECRL is expected to tap MARC’s rating experience and benefit from the latter’s track record of providing credit rating services in Malaysia over the last 12 years.  En. Mohd Razlan Mohamed, MARC’s CEO said that, “This development is a testimony to MARC’s progression in becoming a matured rating agency capable of providing and exporting our technical knowledge and capability to new start-ups. When MARC started in 1996, we entered into a technical collaboration with Thomson Bankwatch Ratings of USA, which was subsequently acquired by Fitch Ratings.” 

Meanwhile, Mr. NKA Mobin said that, “The collaboration with MARC will definitely enhance ECRL’s capability to provide its credit rating services in Bangladesh upon its expected commencement of operations in early 2010.”  En. Razlan also went on to add that MARC is open to providing similar technical services to new rating agencies in other emerging markets.

Contacts:  
Roza Shahnaz Omar, 03-2090 2214/ roza@marc.com.my; 
Saw Leng Hean, 03-2090 2248/ lenghean@marc.com.my