Crisil''s rating outlooks

Mumbai: The Credit Rating and Information services of India (Crisil) has announced its 'rating outlooks' on its portfolio of long-term and fixed deposit ratings.

This will indicate the direction in which a rating may move over a medium-term horizon of one-to-two years. Crisil believes that an 'outlook' will be a useful decision aid for investors.

New debt market players like mutual funds have relatively shorter time horizons compared to traditional long-term investors like banks, insurance companies and provident funds. Crisil says since rating changes influence bond prices, active fund managers constantly attempt to anticipate rating actions.

Says Crisil executive director and chief rating officer Roopa Kudva: "Changes in the domestic debt market in terms of increased trading of rated instruments as well as changing investor profile make rating outlooks more relevant now. This is also an important step towards international best practices."