On May 14, the Operations Office of the People’s Bank of China (PBC) announced to have filed a record for Fitch (China) Bohua Credit Ratings Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Fitch Bohua), a wholly-owned subsidy of the US-based Fitch Ratings in China. On the same day, the National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors (NAFMII) also released a public notice on its approval of the registration of Fitch Bohua for conducting bond credit rating business in China’s interbank bond market. This marks that Fitch Ratings has become the second foreign-funded credit rating agency to access the Chinese market after S&P Global gained its approval in 2019.
The opening-up of the credit rating sector is an important part of the move to open up China’s financial sector, and is conducive to promoting the high-level development and international presence of China’s credit rating sector and financial market. Granting credit rating license to Fitch Bohua is another step forward in the opening-up of the financial sector, and a concrete move to implement the China-US Phase-I Trade Deal.
Going forward, the PBC will continue advancing the opening-up of China’s credit rating sector at a high level, promote its high-quality development and guide credit rating agencies to play a bigger role in preventing and defusing financial risks, and improving the financing environment for private enterprises and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.
