S&P tailors credit ratings for Gulf

* username: rupertbu

Standard and Poor’s (S&P) yesterday launched a regional credit-ratings system through which companies in the Gulf will be judged against each other, instead of against their global peers.

The introduction of the GCC ratings system comes as S&P and other credit ratings agencies face a challenging business environment with disputes over changing assumptions of government support.

In recent months, S&P was dropped by Emirates NBD, the UAE’s largest bank, while the agency decided to stop rating a division of the government-owned Dubai Holding, saying it was not provided with enough financial information.