We assist clients to evaluate the credit-worthiness of banks, building societies and other investment products, providing both advice and information as necessary. Advice will also be given on establishing the best methodology for using credit ratings as criteria, and a counterparty list will be developed that is appropriate to the Council’s needs, both for risk management and practical use. We will also suggest prudent counterparty duration and cash limits in order to reduce the Council’s exposure to individual bank defaults.

We provide our clients with credit ratings from the three major rating agencies, credit default swap spreads, details of government guarantees and other relevant information. We also perform a regular analysis of the credit-worthiness of unrated building societies. Clients are informed immediately of any change in the credit status of the counterparties they invest with.

We will also inform you when we feel that the underlying creditworthiness of a counterparty is not reflected in its credit ratings, and advise you to alter your investment decisions accordingly. This may arise because of factors that the rating agencies do not take into account when determining ratings, or due to fast moving market events that are still under analysis by the agencies.