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November 14, 2003
Interfax Raiting Agency Sings deal with Russian Pension Fund
The Interfax Rating Agency signed a cooperation agreement on Friday with Russia's Pension Fund to create an evaluation system for management companies and non-government pension funds and pension savings market risks.
Moody's Investors Service, a shareholder of the Interfax Rating Agency, will provide technical support in the agreement's implementation.
At present, people know practically nothing about the degree of reliability of any of the companies allowed to manage pension savings, Zurabov said. A few rating agencies try to advise people but largely fail to convince them, he said. The Interfax Rating Agency and the Pension Fund will join efforts to set up "a reliable, credible system of evaluating managing companies and non-state pensioning funds," he said.
Evaluations of managing companies and non-state pension funds may be sent out to households in 2004 together with a report on the status of pension savings accounts and forms to enable account holders to state their choice of company, Zurabov said.
For his part, Mikhail Komissar, chairman of the Interfax Information Services Group Interfax board of directors, said that the Interfax Rating Agency would "rely on the experience of Moody's in evaluating the management of pensions in various countries."
"We possess all the necessary resources to build an objective evaluation system, one that people can trust," he said.
John Rutherfurd, the head of Moody's Corporation, which is the parent enterprise of Moody's Investors Service, said that Moody's will provide all kinds of support, in particular technical aid, to the Interfax Rating Agency in evaluating managing companies and non-state pension funds.
Moody's Investors Service is one of the world's leading providers of credit ratings, and a top global debt and securities market researcher and analyst.
"The firm publishes market-leading credit opinions, deal research and commentary that reach more that 3,000 institutions and 20,000 subscribers around the globe," the Moody's Corporation website says. "Our ratings and analysis track more than $30 trillion of debt issued in domestic and international markets covering approximately:136,000 corporate, government, and structured finance securities; 67,000 public finance obligations; 6,000 corporate and financial institution relationships and 100 sovereign nations."
Moody's Investors Service is a subsidiary of Moody's Corporation, which "employs approximately 2,100 people worldwide and maintains offices in 18 countries," the site says. More information on Moody's Investors Service is available on www.moodys.com.
The Interfax Rating Agency, a strategic partner to Moody's Investors Service, is a division of the Interfax Information Services Group and specializes in the evaluation of credit risks in Russia. The main task of the agency, which uses the Russian national rating scale, is to verify the credit worthiness of Russian banks, insurance companies, non-financial enterprises, regional administrations, and individual debt issues.
In November 2003, Moody's Investors Service bought a 20% stake in the Interfax Rating Agency and signed an agreement with the agency to cooperate in assigning national-scale ratings in Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan in addition to Russia.
Use of the Russian rating scale enables the Interfax Rating Agency to assign ratings that correspond to the degree of risks that have been taken and are not restricted by Russia's sovereign ratings. More information on the Interfax Rating Agency is available on http://rating.interfax.ru.
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