Generally, the agencies vary in their focus on credit ratings for particular asset classes. Some agencies specialize in a particular class. Moodys and S&P report issuing the greatest number of credit ratings for corporate issuers, asset-backed securities, and government securities. For credit ratings related to financial institutions, Fitch and Moodys report issuing more ratings than S&P. S&P reports issuing the most ratings for insurance companies, with A.M. Best, Moodys, and Fitch reporting issuance of most of the remaining ratings in that asset class. Some of the smaller NRSROs concentrate more on particular sectors or regions. For example, A.M. Best primarily assigns insurance financial strength ratings while Morningstar specializes in asset-backed securities. Prior to its acquisition by Kroll, LACE Financial Corp. primarily focused on ratings of financial institutions. Two NRSROs, JCR and R&I, are based in Japan and primarily issue ratings on Japanese companies.”
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