- alternative investment fund manager
means an AIFM as defined in Article 4(1)(b) of Directive 2011/61/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2011 on Alternative Investment Fund Managers;
- central counterparty
means a CCP as defined in point (1) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) No 648/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 July 2012 on OTC derivatives, central counterparties and trade repositories which is authorised in accordance with Article 14 of that Regulation;
- client
means an entity, its subsidiaries, and associated entities in which the entity has holdings of more than 20 %, as well as any other entities in respect of which it has negotiated the structuring of a debt issue on behalf of a client and where a fee was paid, directly or indirectly, to the credit rating agency for the rating of that debt issue.
- competent authorities
means the authorities designated by each Member State in accordance with Article 22;
- control
means the relationship between a parent undertaking and a subsidiary, as described in Article 1 of Council Directive 83/349/EEC of 13 June 1983 on consolidated accounts, or a close link between any natural or legal person and an undertaking;
- credit institution
means a credit institution as defined in point (1) of Article 4 of Directive 2006/48/EC;
- credit rating
means an opinion regarding the creditworthiness of an entity, a debt or financial obligation, debt security, preferred share or other financial instrument, or of an issuer of such a debt or financial obligation, debt security, preferred share or other financial instrument, issued using an established and defined ranking system of rating categories;
- credit rating activities
means data and information analysis and the evaluation, approval, issuing and review of credit ratings;
- credit rating agency
means a legal person whose occupation includes the issuing of credit ratings on a professional basis;
- credit score
means a measure of creditworthiness derived from summarising and expressing data based only on a pre-established statistical system or model, without any additional substantial rating-specific analytical input from a rating analyst;
- financial instrument
means any of the instruments listed in Section C of Annex I to Directive 2004/39/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 on markets in financial instruments;
- group of credit rating agencies
means a group of undertakings established in the Union consisting of a parent undertaking and its subsidiaries within the meaning of Articles 1 and 2 of Directive 83/349/EEC as well as undertakings linked to each other by a relationship within the meaning of Article 12(1) of Directive 83/349/EEC and whose occupation includes the issuing of credit ratings.
- home Member State
means the Member State in which the credit rating agency has its registered office;
- institution for occupational retirement provision
means an institution for occupational retirement provision as defined in Article 6(a) of Directive 2003/41/EC;
- insurance undertaking
means an insurance undertaking as defined in point (1) of Article 13 of Directive 2009/138/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2009 on the taking-up and pursuit of the business of Insurance and Reinsurance (Solvency II);
- investment company
means an investment company authorised in accordance with Directive 2009/65/EC;
- investment firm
means an investment firm as defined in point (1) of Article 4(1) of Directive 2004/39/EC;
- issuer
means an issuer as defined in Article 2(1)(h) of Directive 2003/71/EC;
- lead rating analyst
means a person with primary responsibility for elaborating a credit rating or for communicating with the issuer with respect to a particular credit rating or, generally, with respect to the credit rating of a financial instrument issued by that issuer and, where relevant, for preparing recommendations to the rating committee in relation to such rating;
- management company
means a management company as defined in Article 2(1)(b) of Directive 2009/65/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 July 2009 on the coordination of laws, regulations and administrative provisions relating to undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities (UCITS);
- originator
means an originator as defined in point (41) of Article 4 of Directive 2006/48/EC;
- prospectus
means a prospectus published under Directive 2003/71/EC and Regulation (EC) No 809/2004;
- rated entity
means a legal person whose creditworthiness is explicitly or implicitly rated in the credit rating, whether or not it has solicited that credit rating and whether or not it has provided information for that credit rating;
- rating analyst
means a person who performs analytical functions that are necessary for the issuing of a credit rating;
- rating category
means a rating symbol, such as a letter or numerical symbol which might be accompanied by appending identifying characters, used in a credit rating to provide a relative measure of risk to distinguish the different risk characteristics of the types of rated entities, issuers and financial instruments or other assets;
- rating outlook
means an opinion regarding the likely direction of a credit rating over the short term, the medium term or both;
- re-securitisation
means re-securitisation as defined in point (40a) of Article 4 of Directive 2006/48/EC.
- regulated market
means a regulated market as defined in point (14) of Article 4(1) of Directive 2004/39/EC and established in the Union;
- regulatory purposes
means the use of credit ratings for the specific purpose of complying with Union law, or with Union law as implemented by the national legislation of the Member States;
- reinsurance undertaking
means a reinsurance undertaking as defined in point (4) of Article 13 of Directive 2009/138/EC;
- related third party
means the originator, arranger, sponsor, servicer or any other party that interacts with a credit rating agency on behalf of a rated entity, including any person directly or indirectly linked to that rated entity by control;
- sectoral competent authorities
means the national competent authorities designated under the relevant sectoral legislation for the supervision of credit institutions, investment firms, insurance undertakings, reinsurance undertakings, institutions for occupational retirement provision, management companies, investment companies, alternative investment fund managers, central counterparties and prospectuses;
- sectoral legislation
means the legislative acts of the Union referred to in points (pa) to (pj);
- securitisation instrument
means a financial instrument or other assets resulting from a securitisation transaction or scheme referred to in Article 2(1) of Regulation (EU) 2017/2402 (Securitisation Regulation);
- senior management
means the person or persons who effectively direct the business of the credit rating agency and the member or members of its administrative or supervisory board;
- shareholder
includes beneficial owners, as defined in point (6) of Article 3 of Directive 2005/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2005 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering and terrorist financing.
- sovereign rating
means:
- sponsor
means a sponsor as defined in point (42) of Article 4 of Directive 2006/48/EC;