8.2 Credit Rating Law and Practice in Nepal

The credit rating = the independent opinion on the debt instrument's-and-issuer's capacity (the default-risk's grade — the AAA-to-D ladder). The law's place: the prescribed issues' compulsory rating (the debt-and-the prescribed public offerings' gate in the SEBON regime), the rating agencies' licensing-and-conduct (the SEBON-licensed raters; the independence-and-conflict disciplines — the issuer-pays paradox's regulation), the rating's publication-and-surveillance (the outlooks'-and-downgrades' discipline). The practice: the licensed agencies' market (the Indian-JV- and-local raters — ICRA Nepal's first-mover face, by name), the rating coverage's growth with the corporate-bond market's adolescence, and the practice's critique (the concentration in the debt instruments; the equity-IPO's rating debate — the "IPO grading" faces; the ratings' analytical depth's questions).