Sweeps all categories — accuracy, stability and predictive utility
Covers most A-rated firms while posting lowest default rate
NICE Ratings, South Korea's only fully domestic credit rating agency, has claimed the top spot in the country's annual assessment of its three rating firms for the first time since the evaluation was introduced a decade ago.
The Korea Financial Investment Association — chaired by Hwang Sung-yeop — announced Tuesday the results of its 2026 credit rating agency capability assessment, conducted by a review committee led by Kang Kyung-hoon, a professor at Dongguk University. NICE Ratings ranked first overall in every category: rating accuracy, rating stability and predictive indicator utility. It is the first time in the evaluation's 10-year history that any single agency has swept all three categories.
The assessment's track record has largely been written by foreign-affiliated firms. Korea Ratings is a European-linked agency in which Fitch holds a 73.55 percent stake, while Korea Credit Rating is a fully owned American subsidiary after Moody's acquired a 100 percent stake in 2016. NICE Ratings, by contrast, is wholly owned by domestic holding company NICE Holdings — making it the only purely homegrown rating agency, though it has maintained a partnership with S&P under an MOU signed in 2018.
From 2017 to 2020, Korea Ratings and Korea Credit Rating split the top honors. Korea Credit Rating then dominated for three consecutive years starting in 2021. NICE Ratings won its first individual category title in 2024, but Korea Credit Rating reclaimed a clean sweep in 2025. This year marks the first time NICE Ratings has ranked first across all categories.
The real estate project financing shock proved decisive in lifting NICE Ratings to the top of the 2026 assessment. When Taeyoung Engineering & Construction filed for a workout in 2023, all three agencies each recorded one A-rated default. Under identical conditions, NICE Ratings posted a three-year cumulative A-rated default rate of 0.261 percent for 2023–2025 — below Korea Ratings at 0.268 percent and Korea Credit Rating at 0.290 percent. The default count was the same across all three firms, but NICE Ratings' denominator was the largest at 123 rated companies, naturally producing a lower default rate. The agency extended A-rated coverage to more companies while keeping credit deterioration to a minimum.
NICE Ratings also led in qualitative scoring, posting 3.89 points in accuracy, 3.84 in stability and 3.90 in predictive utility — outpacing both Korea Credit Rating and Korea Ratings in every subcategory.
Committee chair Kang said 2025 capital markets were shaped by a mix of interest rate cut expectations, real estate project financing restructuring and global tariff concerns, adding that proactive rating adjustments by agencies served as a critical early-warning mechanism for the market. He called on the industry to contribute to capital market stability through transparent and timely assessments, noting that protecting investors through accurate information is especially important given heightened external uncertainty from global interest rate volatility and Middle East conflicts.
kyhong@heraldcorp.com
