Bond Rating

英文名称：Bond Rating 中文名称：债券评级
指信用评级机构根据债券发行人的财务状况和盈利能力对其进行违约可能性的评估。
e.g. The large New York bond rating firm planned to roll out a new municipal bond rating approach this month, but is now retooling that plan for the transition of its municipal bond ratings to a global scale more comparable with corporate bonds.

A grade given to bonds that indicates their credit quality. Private independent rating services such as Standard & Poor's, Moody's and Fitch provide these evaluations of a bond issuer's financial strength, or its the ability to pay a bond's principal and interest in a timely fashion. 

Bond ratings are expressed as letters ranging from 'AAA', which is the highest grade, to 'C' ("junk"), which is the lowest grade. Different rating services use the same letter grades, but use various combinations of upper- and lower-case letters to differentiate themselves. 

To illustrate the bond ratings and their meaning, we'll use the Standard & Poor's format:

AAA and AA:  High credit-quality investment grade
AA and BBB:  Medium credit-quality investment grade
BB, B, CCC, CC, C: Low credit-quality (non-investment grade), or "junk bonds"  
D:  Bonds in default for non-payment of principal and/or interest